Population Genetics

Question 1

natural selection

Answer 1

a process in which individuals that have certain inherited traits tend to survive and reproduce at higher rates than other individuals because of those traits.

Question 2

gene flow (migration)

Answer 2

movement of alleles from one population to another

Question 3

genetic drift

Answer 3

random change in the allele frequency of a population as a result of chance events rather than natural selection.

Question 4

founder effect

Answer 4

change in allele frequencies as a result of the migration of a group of individuals to a new population to colonise

Question 5

allele frequency

Answer 5

a measure of how common a certain allele is in the population

Question 6

gene pool

Answer 6

total number of all alleles available in a population

Question 7

bottleneck effect

Answer 7

a change in allele frequency following a dramatic reduction in the size of a population

Question 8

selection pressures

Answer 8

Factors in the environment that favor the successful reproduction of individuals possessing certain heritable traits and that reduce the viability and fertility of individuals that do not possess those traits.

Question 9

directional selection

Answer 9

Form of natural selection in which the entire curve moves; occurs when individuals at one end of a distribution curve have higher fitness than individuals in the middle or at the other end of the curve