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Front 1

Any characteristic of an organism that improves its chance of survival and reproduction in its environment; the evolutionary process by which a species undergoes progressive modification favoring its survival and reproduction in a given environment.

Back 1

adaptation

Front 2

Analysis of multiple data sets formed by random sampling with replacement from an actual data set in order to estimate a degree of confidence in a particular branch or branching pattern in a gene tree.

Back 2

bootstrapping

Front 3

Electrophoretic identification of individual persons by the use of DNA probes for highly polymorphic regions of the genome, such that the genome of virtually every person exhibits a unique pattern of bands; sometimes called DNA fingerprinting.

Back 3

DNA typing

Front 4

Cumulative change in the genetic characteristics of a species through time.

Back 4

evolution

Front 5

A measure of the average ability of organisms with a given genotype to survive and reproduce.

Back 5

fitness

Front 6

A diagram showing the real or estimated ancestral relationships among a set of protein or nucleic acid sequences.

Back 6

gene tree

Front 7

The genotype frequencies expected with random mating.

Back 7

Hardy-Weinberg principle

Front 8

Mating between relatives.

Back 8

inbreeding

Front 9

A measure of the genetic effects of inbreeding in terms of the proportionate reduction in heterozygosity in an inbred organism compared with the heterozygosity expected with random mating.

Back 9

inbreeding coefficient (F)

Front 10

A group of organisms of the same species occupying an area within which most individual members find their mates; synonymous terms are deme and Mendelian population.

Back 10

local population

Front 11

Extranuclear inheritance of a trait through cytoplasmic factors or organelles contributed by the female gamete.

Back 11

maternal inheritance

Front 12

A group of statistical methods for estimating gene trees and often, by inference, the evolutionary relationships among the taxa of which the genes are representative.

Back 12

molecular phylogenetics

Front 13

In a phylogenetic tree, the most recent node that unites a particular subset of sequences, characters, or species.

Back 13

most recent common ancestor (MRCA)

Front 14

A method for estimating a gene tree in which pairs of taxa are joined sequentially according to which pair are separated by the shortest distance.

Back 14

neighbor joining

Front 15

System of mating in which mating pairs are formed independently of genotype and phenotype.

Back 15

random mating

Front 16

In evolution, condition that alters the ability of genotypes to survive and reproduce; in plant and animal breeding, the choosing of organisms with certain phenotypes to be parents of the next generation; in mutation studies, a procedure designed in such a way that only a desired type of cell can survive.

Back 16

selection

Front 17

The amount by which relative fitness is reduced or increased.

Back 17

selection coefficient

Front 18

A mutation that has no (or negligible) effects on fitness.

Back 18

selectively neutral mutation

Front 19

Evolutionary change in a gene that results in loss of one or more of its functional or regulatory motifs.

Back 19

subfunctionalization

Front 20

A population, species, or other group of organisms of which a protein or nucleic acid sequence, or a set of such sequences, is regarded as representative.

Back 20

taxon