Exam 2 (Ch 7-11) Flashcards
A sub discipline that investigates how allele frequencies and genotype change over time.
Population genetics
Given a set of allele frequencies, the expected set of genotype frequencies that will be observed under the HW model.
Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium
A measure of strength of natural selection for or against a specific phenotype or genotype.
Selection coefficient
When an allele replaces all alternative alleles at the same time; happens when one allele is constantly favored over another; results from underdominance
Fixation
A form of selection in which the fitness associated with a trait is not directly dependent upon the frequency of that trait in a population.
Frequency-independent selection
A stable equilibrium in which more than one allele is present at a locus.; results from over dominance
Balanced polymorphism
Overdominance is associated with…
Heterozygote advantage
A form of frequency-independent selection in which heterozygote genotype have higher fitness than the corresponding homozygote genotypes
Overdominance
A form of frequency-independent selection in which the heterozygote genotype has a lower fitness than either corresponding homozygote genotype.
Underdominance
A measure of the ability to produce offspring
Fecundity
An equilibrium frequency of deleterious mutations in which these deleterious mutations are maintained at a positive frequency in a population because of a balance between ongoing deleterious mutation and the purging effect of natural selection
Mutation-selection balance
A mating pattern in which individuals with dissimilar phenotypes or genotypes mate with one another.
Disassortative mating
When two or more gene copies are identical because of shared descent through a recent common ancestor.
Identical by descent
A decrease in fitness that results from individuals mating with genetic relatives
Inbreeding depression
A statistical measure of the degree of homozygosity in a population; an inbreeding coefficient
Wright’s F-statistic
A population genetic model of evolutionary change in small populations with non-overlapping generations. aka the HW of small populations
Wright-Fisher model
Random fluctuation in allele frequencies over time due to sampling effects in finite populations.
Genetic drift
Alternative alleles are selectively neutral when there is no fitness difference between them.
Selectively neutral
The fraction of individuals in the population that are heterozygous at a given locus
Observed heterozygosity (Ho)
The size of an idealized population (no migration, mutation, assortative mating, or natural selection) that loses genetic variation because of genetic drift at the same rate as the population under study
Effective population size
A theory developed to study the gene–genealogical relationships in a population by tracing the ancestry of gene copies backward from the present through a finite population.
Coalescent theory
The point on a gene tree that delineates the gene copy that is the most recent common ancestor of the genes being studied in a population.
Coalescent point
A brief period of small population size. Population bottlenecks reduce genetic diversity and can accelerate changes in allele frequencies due to genetic drift.
Population bottleneck
A change in allele frequencies that results from sampling effects that occur when a small number of individuals derived from a large population initially colonize a new area and found a new population. Ex: Manx cat
Founder effect
The process by which a species expands into a previously unoccupied area. The individuals colonizing the new area will tend to come from the populations nearest this region, and as a result populations in the newly colonized area will tend to exhibit a reduced genetic relation to those in the source population.
Leading edge expansion
The hypothesis that at the molecular level of DNA sequence or amino acid sequence, most of the variation present within a population and most substitutional differences between populations are selectively neutral.
Neutral theory
The process in which a new allele arises by mutation and is subsequently fixed in a population.
Substitutions
A nonfunctional and typically untranslated segment of DNA that arises from a previously functional gene.
Pseudogene
Selection against deleterious mutations.
Purifying selection
A technique for assigning relative or absolute age based on genetic data. In their simplest form, molecular clock methods assume that substitutions at neutral loci occur in clocklike fashion, and so researchers use genetic distances between populations to estimate the time since divergence.
Molecular clock
The principle that if molecular evolution proceeds at the same constant rate over time in different lineages, all members of a clade should be genetically equidistant from an outgroup to the clade.
Genetic equidistance principle
The hypothesis that most polymorphisms and most substitutions, if not strictly neutral, are only mildly deleterious—and that because of relatively small population sizes, natural selection is unable to purge these deleterious variants.
Nearly neutral theory
Traits that are affected by many genes simultaneously.
Polygenic traits
Genetic contributions to phenotype for a polygenic trait, in which the effects of each allele sum together to determine phenotype.
Additive genetic effects
The phenomenon in which alleles at two or more loci interact in nonadditive ways to determine phenotype
Epistasis
The range of potential phenotypic variants that could be produced given the current genetic variation in the population, but are not observed because the necessary combinations of alleles are not realized in the population.
Latent variation
A haploid set of alleles, i.e., one at each locus
Haplotype
The presence of statistical associations between alleles at different loci.
Linkage disequilibrium
A measure of nonrandom association between alleles at two different loci. The difference between the actual frequency of a haplotype and the expected frequency of that haplotype if there were no association between alleles at one locus and alleles at the other locus.
Coefficient of linkage disequilibrium
Linkage disequilibrium in which the coefficient of linkage disequilibrium D is positive.
Coupling
Linkage disequilibrium in which the coefficient of linkage disequilibrium D is negative.
Repulsion
A process in which a series of clones carrying beneficial mutations successively go to fixation in an asexual population.
Periodic selection
A phenomenon in which a selected allele goes to fixation, carrying with it alleles at physically linked loci.
Selective sweep
The process by which a neutral or even disadvantageous allele is able to “ride along” with a nearby favorable allele to which it is physically linked, and thus increase in frequency.
Genetic hitchhiking