Population genetics Essays

  • Population Bottleneck: A Genetic Analysis

    1258 Words  | 3 Pages

    Population bottleneck is an evolutionary event in which a large part of a population or species is died or otherwise cannot reproduce, which increases genetic drift that can cause big losses of genetic variation for small populations. However, the amount of drift is inversely proportional to the population size, population bottleneck result a smaller population with reduced genetic diversity. Dropped genetic variation implies that the population will most likely be unable to adjust to new selection

  • Genetic Diversity: Mutations, Sexual Reproduction, Migration, and Population Size

    569 Words  | 2 Pages

    The study of heredity is what is referred to as genetics. Genetic diversity is therefore described as any variation in the genes, chromosomes, nucleotides or sometime change in the whole genomes of an organism. Though genome is not well branded term for many, it is the entire balance of DNA within the cell or organelles of the organism. When one talks of genetic diversity in its most elementary level, it is represented by differentiation in the sequence of nucleotides that form the DNA within the

  • Effects of Genetic Drift

    3406 Words  | 7 Pages

    of content Introduction Effects of genetic drift Change in allele frequency Loss of genetic variation Loss of allelic diversity Founder effects Founder effect (i) genetic bottleneck Case study: Greater Prairies Chickens Founder effect (ii) Fitness effect of genetic drift Effective population size Genetic drift and natural selection Correlation between fitness and genetic diversity Conclusion References Genetic drift in natural populations Introduction If you flip a coin 500

  • Essay On Population Bottleneck

    2289 Words  | 5 Pages

    reductions in population size. This phenomenon is called a population bottleneck (nature.com). The loss of reproducing individuals means a contraction in the number of alleles being contributed to the gene pool. Species with low effective populations are subject to the influence of genetic drift – a stochastic evolutionary mechanism that moves an allele towards fixation, regardless of what fitness advantages or deleterious effects it may have (Wright, 1931). The bottle-necking of a population is expected

  • Speciation in Hawaiian Plant hoppers

    1028 Words  | 3 Pages

    experiments testing the validity of hypotheses that derive from the core of evolutionary theory. Oliarus Polyphemus, the subterranean insect lineage that lives in lava tube caves on Hawaii Island, is ideal for studying the effects of natural selection and genetic drift. Known as Hawaiian cave planthoppers, these obligate cavernicoles live in the Hawaiian archipelago, which is subject to frequent volcanism and rapidly changing landscape dynamics. This leads to interconnected systems of lava tube caves and

  • Genetic Drift In Katrina

    1112 Words  | 3 Pages

    shape the genetic make-up of not only humans but all animals. One disaster can change an entire population’s structure, allele frequencies, and outlook. Hurricanes are a type of natural disaster that can demonstrate two specific examples of genetics which are population bottlenecks and genetic drifts. A specific example of how bottleneck effects and genetic drift can occur in areas where hurricanes are prevalent in is Hurricane Katrina. When looking at Hurricane Katrina, the population bottleneck

  • The Production of Sesame in Ethiopia

    1465 Words  | 3 Pages

    recognized as a cultivated species (Getinet et al. 1998). Even though the origin of sesame is still in debate, Mehra (1967) and Mahajan (2007) considered Ethiopia as the origin of cultivated sesame. Bedigian (1981) argues that, owing to the wide genetic diversity in East Africa (Ethiopia), it is reasonable to assume that this subcontinent is the primary center of origin and India would then be thought of as a secondary center for sesame. Sesame seed, also known as sesamum, gingelly, benniseed, sim-sim

  • An Introduction to Evolution

    3627 Words  | 8 Pages

    An Introduction to Evolution What is Evolution? Evolution is the process by which all living things have developed from primitive organisms through changes occurring over billions of years, a process that includes all animals and plants. Exactly how evolution occurs is still a matter of debate, but there are many different theories and that it occurs is a scientific fact. Biologists agree that all living things come through a long history of changes shaped by physical and chemical processes

  • Pluralism with Multiple Methods of Adaptation

    580 Words  | 2 Pages

    Pluralism with Multiple Methods of Adaptation Gould and Lewontin present an argument criticizing the way evolutionary science solely relies on adaptations in the current environment. Their argument, known as pluralism, asserts that evolutionary biology continues on the path adaptationism without ever exploring other methods. Gould and Lewontin propose several alternative approaches, the fourth of which states that an identical trade into different organisms of the same species can be led to in different

  • Natural Selection Essay

    698 Words  | 2 Pages

    Natural selection is the gradual process by which biological traits become either more or less common in a population as a function of the effect of inherited traits on the differential reproductive success of organisms interacting with their environment. It is a key mechanism of evolution. This simply means the stronger traits will pass on and the week ones will not. A person who took this theory to heart and proved it was Charles Darwin . Charles Darwin gained many facts to support this. One of

  • The Nonexistence of Kindness: George Price

    981 Words  | 2 Pages

    individuals--an idea known as group selection”(Schwartz). Group selection, which was based off of Darwin’s theory of natural selection, was the theory that an individual organism would sacrifice itself (seemingly selflessly) for the good of the entire population, hoping that its actions would save the group from annihilation and therefore allow for the continuation of the group’s gene flow into its descendants. Darwin explained that groups with members “ready to give aid to each other and sacrifice themselves

  • Genetic Variation and Evolution by Selection

    1314 Words  | 3 Pages

    Species don’t try to adapt to their environment. Adaptation to the environment is inevitable if a species has the right kind of genetic variation. (pg. 117) The thought that “everything happens by chance” is essentially wrong. Evolution by selection is a combination of randomness and lawfulness. First a “random” process is the occurrence of mutations that generate an array of genetic variants, both good and bad; and then a “lawful” process (natural selection) that creates these variations. (pg.118) DNA

  • Gould and Lewontin's Essay 'The Spandrels of San Marco'

    1049 Words  | 3 Pages

    Contemporary science has assimilated the bigotry views that it hoped to fend off. The scientific community, their ideas and perceptions, account for the accepted scientific beliefs rather than the perpetual, and actual scientific theories. Gould and Lewontin's essay "The Spandrels of San Marco" is about an adaptationist programme and how it has taken over evolutionary belief in England and the United States during the past forty years. The people believe in the power of natural selection as a key

  • Tribalism Case Study

    765 Words  | 2 Pages

    The role of tribalism in choosing partners. Inclinations to tribalism may not be the primary reason for choice of partner, but may provide as an aid for group selection. In a 1986 study from the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, factors among those that were considered most important to marital relationship decisions were that their spouse was religious, kind or considerate, artistic/intelligent, and easygoing/adaptable. Religion as a bonding agent in human relationships has taken

  • Hardy-weinburg Equilibrium

    1101 Words  | 3 Pages

    pool remain constant over the generations unless acted upon by agents other than sexual recombination. For example, take a population of mice that consists of 1,000 members. A specific allele, albino allele, is recessive within this species. 80% of the population expresses the normal phenotype- brown coloring, while the remaining 20% are albino. 640 members of the population have the genotype AA, 320 have Aa, and 40 have aa. If completely random mating were to occur, there would be an 80% chance

  • Drew Fish Overpopulation Effect

    514 Words  | 2 Pages

    alter the proportion of homozygotes and heterozygotes in a population: genetic drift, gene flow, mutation, and natural selection. Genetic drift is the change in the gene pool that occurs in a small population due to chance. For example, let's say we are talking about a species of fish called Drew fish, well the Drew fish population was hit by an oil spill and many of them died. The remaining survivors form new colonies, and this results in genetic drift, the founder effect. Gene flow is about the movement

  • The Future Of Human Evolution

    1788 Words  | 4 Pages

    Evolution, the science of how populations of living organisms change over time in response to their environment, is the central unifying theme in biology today. Evolution was first explored in its semi-modern form in Charles Darwin 's 1859 book, Origin of Species by means of Natural Selection. In this book, Darwin laid out a strong argument for evolution. He postulated that all species have a common ancestor from which they are descended. As populations of species moved into new habitats

  • Dog evolution

    633 Words  | 2 Pages

    The video “Dogs and More Dogs” presents one of the most perplexing questions in evolutionary biology: how did the diversity of dogs evolve from a relatively homogeneous population of wolves. Anthropological data suggests that dogs came into existence some fifteen thousand years ago. In terms of the history of earth and the majority of the organisms that inhibit it, dogs are still very young. It is thus very remarkable that one species (wolves), which must have looked somewhat alike, could have given

  • Evolution: Darwin And Darwin's Theory Of Evolution

    1770 Words  | 4 Pages

    chapter 23 name:mathews.t.varghese class:ap bio;period:01 concept 23.1 Today, we can define evolutionary change on its smallest scale, or microevolution, as change in the genetic makeup of a populations from generation to generations. Darwin found a mechanism for change in species over time. gregor mendel proposed that parents pass on discrete heritable units. that retain their identities in offspring. When Mendel’s research was rediscovered in the early 20th century, many geneticists believed that

  • Peppered Moth Simulations

    1819 Words  | 4 Pages

    Many factors can cause a population’s genetic structure to change. When a population’s genotype and allele frequencies change over time, the population is said to be evolving. The Hardy-Weinberg Equilibrium Theory is used in population genetics to determine whether these factors act on a population and in turn, whether it is evolving or not. An experiment was conducted using the peppered moth PopGenLab software to test how disassortative mating affects a population of only black and brown moths. It was