Genetic biodiversity Flashcards
What is genetic biodiversity?
the variation of alleles within a species
Why is it good to have a high genetic diversity in a population?
the population will have a greater ability to adapt to changes within their environment
Which two factors increase genetic biodiversity?
Interbreeding between different populations within a species and mutation
What are the 8 factors that decrease genetic biodiversity?
genetic drift, captive breeding programmes, selective breeding, genetic bottlenecks, founder effect, rare breeds, artificial cloning and natural selection
What is gene flow?
transferring of alleles between populations within a species, meaning certain alleles don’t remain within a very small group of a species.
Explain the founder effect?
A small number of individuals from a species start a new colony, generally on an isolated island and this makes the genetic diversity very low.
What is the name given to an event that leads to only a few individuals surviving?
genetic bottleneck
What is genetic drift?
alleles disappear due to the random nature of alleles being passed down to offspring, slowly over time the proportion of the population with the allele will become smaller and smaller until eventually it’s gone
What’s a polymorphic gene?
a gene that has 2 or more alleles for it
What’s the equation to work out proportion of polymorphic gene loci?
no. of polymorphic gene loci / total no. of loci
