Genetic diversity Flashcards
What is genetic diversity
The number of different alleles of genes in a species or population
A large number of different alleles leads to a large variety of different characteristics and high genetic diversity
How is genetic diversity increased
Mutations in the dna forming new alleles
Different alleles being introduced into a population when individuals from another population migrate into it and reproduce it
What is genetic bottlenecking
An event that causes a big reduction in population
Eg.
When are large number of organisms within a population die before reproducing
It reduces the different alleles in the gene pool so reduces genetic diversity
What is the founder effect
When a few organisms from a population start a new colony be there are only a small number of different alleles in the initial gene pool
It can occur as a result of migration
Two ways that reduce allele frequency
Bottleneck
The founder effect