Genetic Drift

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 Genetic drift is a random change in allele frequencies within a population. This change is often due to chance events like the bottleneck or the founder effect. The bottleneck effect occurs when a population's size is dramatically reduced, leading to a loss of genetic variation. This can happen as a result of things such as natural disasters, habitat loss, or overhunting. However, in the founder effect, a small subset of a larger population breaks off and establishes a new population, bringing only a fraction of the original genetic diversity. 

    Genetic drift is often confused with gene flow. In gene flow, we can see the transmission and introduction of genes across populations, but in genetic drift, it is simply the changing of allele frequencies. Genetic drift is also not natural selection, as it does not favor traits that enhance survivability. 



Comments

  1. Mike J.October 20, 2024 at 8:45 PM

    I like your illustration! I appreciate that you contrasted genetic drift with gene flow, as I feel that is one of the more confusing distinctions between all of these processes. I feel like it makes sense to illustrate genetic drift as acting on isolated populations for that sort of thing. Islands are cool. :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Catrina AguirreOctober 20, 2024 at 9:10 PM

    You made understanding the difference between the bottleneck effect and the founder effect so easy, and shows how genetic drift is not natural selection.

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousOctober 20, 2024 at 10:00 PM

    I love your illustrations. I also like that you contrasted genetic drift and gene flow as I thought they went hand and hand and did not realize they were different until I read this.

    ReplyDelete
  4. LaylaNovember 10, 2024 at 7:39 PM

    You explained this very clearly and your illustrations really hits the blog home! Good job.

    ReplyDelete

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