Genetic Drift

 Genetic Drift

Genetic drift is a change in gene or allele frequencies due to random chance. In the bottleneck effect seen on the top illustration, there are 6 different colors that could represent 6 different species. Some sort of bottlenecking event occurs. An example of this would be a natural disaster like a forest fire. This might kill off some or all of certain species, leaving only a few behind. In this example, only 3 colors (or species) survived. Then, through a process of evolution and selection, the 3 remaining species will continue to reproduce and create a new community of species. In the second image, the founder effect shows when a species moves to a new geographical location and are able to survive, they can also create an entirely new community of species. For example, in the image the mainland has multiple different colors of bugs. One day a green and pink bug fly to island 2 and land there. No other animals are on that island, and the green and pink bugs will be the "founders". By "founder" I mean that if they are able to survive and reproduce, their offspring will be genetically like the green and pink bugs, and nothing like the orange, yellow, or blue bugs they left behind. This creates a distinct and new pool of genes varying from their mainland. It is important to note that evolution and genetic drift are both very different processes. Genetic drift is a process in which allele frequencies change and is mostly due to chance. Evolution is also a result of genes being passed along and changing, however this is due to an organism or species' relative fitness, and less likely due to chance.


For my final project I am doing a choose your own adventure, likely in the form of a google form. I added onto my choose your own adventure the founder effect as one of the options. The hyperlink to access it is here: https://forms.gle/bRrK8Nqq2A852vjr7

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

It Gets Complicated

It Gets Complicated Plasticity is the ability of an organism's phenotype, or physical expression of a trait, to change in the presence or absence of certain environmental conditions. To determine an organism's plasticity (let's say a moth whose wings might change colors to match their environment), you would need to establish the trait you are going to study. Once you have established that the color of the wings is the trait you are going to study, gather many moths and put them in a similar colored environment. Document the color and pattern of their wings, and after a select period of time, move them to a new environment (or many new environments) to see if their color or pattern changes in response to the conditions. If a change is noticed, repeat the study for validity of results. Make sure to eliminate outside variables by feeding them at the same time, providing the same amount of light, and ensuring all organisms being compared are the same gender etc. If the organis...
Read more

Genotypes and Phenotypes

 Genotypes and Phenotypes How does it make sense that selection acts on the phenotype when we know that the genotype is what is passed to the next generation: To answer this question, I think that it is important that we first illustrate the differences between a phenotype and a genotype. A genotype is an organism's genes. This is the molecular makeup of their being, their code for everything that makes them, well, them. Genotypes change throughout generations and are susceptible to mutations and recombination. Both of these factors cause genotypes to shift and change, creating changes in the organism and their offspring. Phenotypes are the physical representation of these genes. We see phenotypes through the traits that an organism has. Someone might have brunette or blonde hair, but they have it due to the combination and order of their specific genome. Examples of phenotypes include colors of petals, skin, and eyes, length of legs, blood type, stem thickness, etc.  When loo...
Read more

About Me

Image
 About Me! HI! I am in my last semester of undergrad and its a really sweet and sentimental time! I am hoping to be a doctor one day! I love doing all things outdoors, and I love hosting people at my house for game nights and dinner! Climbing and swimming have been longtime hobbies for me! Something I learned from this weeks materials I didn't previously know:  Watching the video and podcast about the football analogy was really interesting. I did not realize how new humanity was compared to the age of our Earth. It was also cool to learn that the T-Rex was closer to the age of humans than it is to the Stegosaurus, even though it was also a dinosaur. Question 1 Content Summary" We are able to see whether evolution has occurred quickly or slowly, via records of species' remains. Using fossils as an example, if there is a gradual transition between fossils in the layers of the earth, with many transitional states present, we can assume that evolution has occurred slowly. If ...
Read more