BI111 Chapter Notes - Chapter 21.2/21.2: Allele Frequency, Zygosity, Noncoding Dna
Document Summary
The creator had a specific design in mind for every species. A walk down the street reveals how variable our species and many other species are. Since darwin we have appreciates that a species does not conform to a type. A species consists of a range of variants. After darwin, variation was recognized as a key to evolutionary processes. Variation is a major function of the natural world. Two factors contribute to an individual"s phenotype; the set of alleles, and the environment in which the individual lives. Population genetics is the study of patterns of genetic variation: Humans rank low in terms of overall genetic variation compared to other species. Humans differ in one base per thousand while fruit flies differ by ten bases per thousand. A species consist of individuals that can exchange genetic material through interbreeding. A species is therefore a group of individuals capable of reproducing with each other.
