Allele Overpopulation Research Paper

In some populations, alleles can be lost due to random events. Genetic drift reduces allele frequencies in smaller population, therefore, decrease genetic variation. It can eliminate alleles at a faster rate in smaller population until they become fixed in the population. On the other hand, alleles in a large population rarely become fixed by genetic drift. This indicates that genetic drift has a greater effect on a smaller population by getting rid of alleles at a faster rate. Genetic variation is negligible at a fixed locus because alleles that are alike in a population reside in that locus. As a result, when an allele becomes fixed in a population all the individuals will carry that allele. Alleles that are less advantageous can eventually …show more content…
For example, an allele starting with a frequency of 0.01 has 1% chance of being fixed in a population. It is very interesting to see genetic diversity at many loci though natural selection is constantly acting in a population. Even in the presence of natural selection, genetic diversity can be manifested by mutation, selection itself, negative frequency dependent selection and recessive alleles can minimize effect of natural selection. Mutations give rise to novel alleles which in turn produce new phenotypes in a population. This will change allele frequencies, and if any allele is harmful to the organism, natural selection will try to minimize the effect of that allele. Natural selection can’t keep up with new mutations because they are constantly they are constantly producing at a locus increases frequency of that allele. This creates a mutation-selection balance in a population stabilizing the allele frequency, therefore genetic diversity still operates in the population. On the other hand, presence of sparse genotypes can influence genetic diversity within a population leading to negative frequency-dependent