ANTH 011 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Allele Frequency, Genetic Drift, Gene Flow

• School: College of The Sequoias
• Department: Anthropology (ANTH)
• Course: ANTH 011
• Professor: Allen

Document Summary

1) ability of population to reproduce is infinite; however the ability of the environment to support populations is finite: there is therefore competition to survive and reproduce. 2) organisms within populations vary, and this variation affects ability to survive and reproduce. 3) traits are passed to offspring, called heritability. Darwin defined evolution as descent with modification, but: Natural selection acts on individual variation within a species traits that are advantageous in the local environment lead to fitness benefits for the individual carrying that trait. This makes it more likely to be passed on; and population allele frequencies change over generations due to differential reproductive success of individuals. Natural selection- individuals with traits advantageous to the local environment will survive to reproduce more than individuals without such a trail leading to higher frequency of advantageous alleles in the next generation of offspring. Genetic drift- bottleneck/founder effect: unrepresentative sample of the original population"s genetic composition makes it through.