Introduction to Conservation Genetics Flashcards
Minimum viable population
The minimum population needed for a species to grow and evolve (usually about 50)
Allopatric
Being geographically isolated
Anagenesis
One species giving birth to another species
What leads species to extinction?
Climate change, Succession, disease, and rare catastrophic events
About how long does a mammal species last?
On average 1 million years, but up to 10 million years
T/f there is a direct correlation between population genetic diversity and population fitness
True
Population fitness
A relative or absolute measure of reproductive efficiency or success
What are the two primary goals conservation scientists have in their studies?
- Preserve heritable genetic variation, especially in small populations threatened with extinction
- To prevent fixation of alleles
Alleles
Different variations of the same gene
What happens when alleles become fixed?
Reduced fitness and accumulation of harmful mutations
What explains the genetic variation among populations and individuals?
Mutations affecting a single nucleotide or DNA segment
Locus
A single location on a given chromosome
How can genetic variation be measured?
Within individuals, between individuals within populations, between populations
T/F Fitness is consistently higher in populations with greater genetic diversity, and larger populations vs smaller ones
True
Heterozygosity
Having two different alleles on the same loci
Do Freshwater or marine fish have higher gene flow?
Marine fish, and it causes them to be more homogeneous
Do animals with longer or shorter life cycles have higher heterozygosity?
Shorter life cycles, like insects and mullosks
What type of heterozygosity do small endemic populations have?
Lower heterozygosity
How do climatic conditions affect heterozygosity?
Species living in ecological extremes have higher heterozygosity than species in broad climatic variation
Inbreeding depression
The deleterious effects of inbreeding on reproduction and survival
What allows us to predict how much variation will be lost in a population of a given size?
Measuring the levels of genetic variation in natural populations
Do small or large populations lose genetic variation faster?
Small populations because they are prone to the effect of random events associated with Mating, genetic recombination, etc
Why do losses happen at high rates in small populations?
Random Genetic drift
What is the formula for the proportion of original heterozygosity remaining after each generation in an isolated population?
H= 1- 1/(2Ne) where Ne= number of effective breeders
What is the proportion of heterozygosity remaining after t generations?
Ht= H^t
What balances the effects if genetic drift in large populations?
Migration of individuals among populations and the natural mutation of genes
What is fitness
The reproductive success of an individual measured as the number of offspring produced that survive to reproductive age relative to the average for the population
