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Evolutionary Forces in Amish Genetics

1. The document discusses the four main forces of evolution - mutation, gene flow, genetic drift, and natural selection - that can cause changes in a population's gene frequencies over time. 2. Mutation introduces new genetic variations, while gene flow involves the movement of individuals between populations and the exchange of genes. 3. Genetic drift is the random change in allele frequencies that can occur in small populations by chance alone, such as through a bottleneck effect where a population suddenly decreases in size.

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Juan sebastian Chacón Vega
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10 views1 page

Evolutionary Forces in Amish Genetics

1. The document discusses the four main forces of evolution - mutation, gene flow, genetic drift, and natural selection - that can cause changes in a population's gene frequencies over time. 2. Mutation introduces new genetic variations, while gene flow involves the movement of individuals between populations and the exchange of genes. 3. Genetic drift is the random change in allele frequencies that can occur in small populations by chance alone, such as through a bottleneck effect where a population suddenly decreases in size.

Uploaded by

Juan sebastian Chacón Vega
Copyright
© All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

RETRIEVAL ACTIVITY – BIOLOGY

Instructions

1. Read the full text


2. Research information about the Amish population
3. Write a 500 to 1000-word essay about how the forces of evolution have acted in this population.

How do a population's genes change?

Remember, without change, there cannot be evolution. Together, the forces that change a population's gene
frequencies are the driving mechanisms behind evolution.
Forces of Evolution

The conditions for Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium are unlikely to be met in real populations. The Hardy-Weinberg theorem
also describes populations in which allele frequencies are not changing. Such populations are not evolving. How does
the theorem help us understand evolution in the real world?
From the theorem, we can infer factors that cause allele frequencies to change. These factors are the "forces of evolution."
There are four such forces: mutation, gene flow, genetic drift, and natural selection. Natural selection will be discussed
in the "Natural Selection" concept.

Mutation

Mutation creates new genetic variation in a gene pool. It is how all new alleles first arise. In sexually reproducing species,
the mutations that matter for evolution are those that occur in gametes. Only these mutations can be passed to offspring.
For any given gene, the chance of a mutation occurring in a given gamete is very low. Thus, mutations alone do not
have much effect on allele frequencies. However, mutations provide the genetic variation needed for other forces of
evolution to act.

Gene Flow

Gene flow occurs when individuals move into or out of a population. If the rate of migration is high, this can have a
significant effect on allele frequencies. The allele frequencies of both the population they leave and the population they
enter may change.
During the Vietnam War in the 1960s and 1970s, many American servicemen had children with Vietnamese women.
Most of the servicemen returned to the United States after the war. However, they left copies of their genes behind in
their offspring. In this way, they changed the allele frequencies in the Vietnamese gene pool. Was the gene pool of the?
American population also affected? Why or why not?

Genetic Drift

Genetic drift is a random change in allele frequencies that occurs in a small population. When a small number of parents
produce just a few offspring, allele frequencies in the offspring may differ, by chance, from allele frequencies in the
parents.
This is like tossing a coin. If you toss a coin just a few times, you may, by chance, get more or less than the expected 50
percent heads or tails. In a small population, you may also, by chance, get different allele frequencies than expected in
the next generation. In this way, allele frequencies may drift over time.
There are two special conditions under which genetic drift occurs. They are called bottleneck effect and founder effect.
Bottleneck effect occurs when a population suddenly gets much smaller. This might happen because of a natural disaster
such as a forest fire. By chance, allele frequencies of the survivors may be different from those of the original population.

BIOLOGY
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