Lesson 7: Sex - Sources of Genotypic Variation Flashcards
how does reduction of variation occur
genetic drift in finite populations (loss of alleles, loss of heterozygosity (inbreeding))
sources of allelic variation
mutations
sources of genotypic variation
sex (meiosis)
heritable variation without changes in the genetic code
epigenetic inheritance
sex: shuffling of combinations of alleles
no new alleles, only new genotypes
what is sex
meiosis with crossing over + random mating
- produces gametes
- separates homologous chromosomes
meiosis
exchange of genetic information between the pairs of chromosomes
recombination
- shuffling of gametes
- newly formed haploid chromosome come together
- shuffling of allelic combinations into new genotypes
random mating
How does meiosis generate genotypic diversity in two ways
- physical exchange of homologous chromosomal regions (homologous recombination)
- separation of homologous chromosome pairs allows random and independent shuffling of haploid chromosomes (random mating)
process by which a molecule of nucleic acid is broken and then joined to a different one
genetic recombination
what does genetic recombination reduce
linkage disequilibrium (LD)
how does genetic recombination reduce linkage disequilibrium
mixes up combinations of alleles across loci
- increases genotypic variation
- mixes up combinations of alleles at a given locus
- can also help break up LD on different chromatids
random mating
Consequence of recombination
reduce linkage disequilibrium
- non-random association of alleles at two or more loci, not necessarily on the same chromosome
- occurence of some combinations of alleles or genetic markers in a population more often or less often than would be expected from random formation of haplotypes from alleles based on their frequencies
linkage disequilibrium
recombination will break down linkage disequilibrium on ___ chromosome
the same chromosome
random mating will break down linkage disequilibrium on ___ chromosome
different chromosome
what often cause the nanrandom association of alleles
- natural selection
- genetic drift
random mating: create individuals free of deleterious mutations
bring together favorable mutations across loci
random mating: deleterious combinations can be selected out of the population
bring together unfavorable mutations across loci
tend to last longer
sexual species
often good early colonizers of novel habitats because of rapid growth rate
asexual species
percent of asexual in eukaryotes
1%
Benefits of Sex
- breakdown linkage disequilibrium
- increase genotypic variation
- purge deleterious mutations more easily
- bring together favorable mutations
- evolution of “individuality”
idea that each person has characteristics that make them different from everyone else in society
Individuality
Costs of Sex
- lower reproductive rate (1/2)
- have to find mates (not all individuals produce)
- pass on only 1/2 of genome at each reproduction event
- death of uniq individuals (genome) in the parental generation