Thread: Genetic Drift

I'll have to admit that I poorly understand genetic drift in practical terms, even after seeing it illustrated in college textbooks. It's a pretty basic concept, I'm sure.

Let's say the "bottleneck effect" or the "founder effect".
I understand Genetic Drift to be the change in the number/frequency of a gene variant (allele) in populations randomly.

Are the "bottleneck" and "founder" effects examples of how genetic drift affects a population? Or are they entirely different things, only such that Genetic Drift exerts a larger effect on the population that is reduced?

Originally Posted by theSocraticomplex

I'll have to admit that I poorly understand genetic drift in practical terms, even after seeing it illustrated in college textbooks. It's a pretty basic concept, I'm sure.

Let's say the "bottleneck effect" or the "founder effect".
I understand Genetic Drift to be the change in the number/frequency of a gene variant (allele) in populations randomly.

Are the "bottleneck" and "founder" effects examples of how genetic drift affects a population? Or are they entirely different things, only such that Genetic Drift exerts a larger effect on the population that is reduced?

yes, they are effects of genetic drift, founder effect happens after a bottle neck. The best website that helps to understand evolution is Berkley's : http://evolution.berkeley.edu/evosit...tlenecks.shtml

Originally Posted by theSocraticomplex

I'll have to admit that I poorly understand genetic drift in practical terms, even after seeing it illustrated in college textbooks. It's a pretty basic concept, I'm sure.

Let's say the "bottleneck effect" or the "founder effect".
I understand Genetic Drift to be the change in the number/frequency of a gene variant (allele) in populations randomly.

Are the "bottleneck" and "founder" effects examples of how genetic drift affects a population? Or are they entirely different things, only such that Genetic Drift exerts a larger effect on the population that is reduced?

Your definition of genetic drift is correct. Another way of defining it would be to say that it is the rate by which a gene pool has changed from any given point in time.

A bottleneck would occur when the variation within a gene pool is drastically reduced.

The founder effect is the result of the bottleneck, establishing a new base by which the process of genetic drift will continue.

So it's not that they are examples of how genetic drift affects a population, but they are examples of mechanisms which affect genetic drift.

I'm new to the forum. Anyone able to tell me why the quote command didn't work?[/quote]

No idea. I copy/pasted it exactly as it is in your post and it worked. It happens occasionally though.


Edited out quote.

Originally Posted by figminternal

I'm new to the forum. Anyone able to tell me why the quote command didn't work?

Some features are disabled for new members. It will work for you after a certain number of posts.

Change in the countless gene variant in a population due to random sampling that causes Genetic drift in the offspring are a sample of those in the parents, and possibility to role in inducing whether a given single survives and reproduces.