Genetic Drift & Founder And Bottleneck Effect Flashcards
What is vertical transfer of genetic material?
Occurs from parent to offspring (sexual or asexual)
What is horizontal transfer of genetic material?
From one cell to another not during reproduction
Results in rapid evolutionary change
What is genetic drift?
The process of RANDOM changes in allele frequency due to a chance event
What is genetic diversity?
Genetic differences between individuals within a population (in terms of alleles)
Lower genetic diversity = weaker
What is allele frequency?
How often a particular allele occurs within a population
Describe the founder effect
Small populations isolated from each other vary greatly due to changes in allele frequency
The members of the splinter group possess a a random sample of genes not representative of the original population gene pool
Describe the bottleneck effect
Genetic bottlenecks occur when a small number of individuals are the only contributors to future generations
Can happen when most of the population dies out
