Genetic drift is a phenomenon that occurs when chance events cause a change within the alleles of a population. The alleles are the variations that are present due to the genetic makeup of a population. The alleles are the engine that drives the evolution process within that given population. Genetic drift, therefore, reduces distinction that exists within a community of significantly reducing the population. An adverse change in the size of the population leads to a significant level the emergence of a unique community. The populations of organisms are always a changing phenomenon because the organisms are usually trying to adapt to new environments. That leads to an automatic restructuring within the gene pool. A reduced population mainly intensifies this. In some particular circumstances that the genetic drift is strong enough, a given allele mig
...ht be fully eliminated from a given population (Hartl, Clark, & Clark. 1997).
There are two major types of genetic drift. The first type is known as a population bottleneck. That occurs when the population reduces significantly within a short span of time. That occurs typically due to the catastrophic environmental events. These can be among others destruction of a habitat or in some cases hunting down of a species to near extinction. In this way, many alleles within the population are lost. In the same manner, the genetic variation of the population is reduced (Lande, 1976).
The second type is known as the founder effect. That occurs when few individuals within a population colonize a new location. This way they are separated from the others in the population. That creates a reduction in the population as well as the genetic variability o
the population (Lande, 1976).
References
- Hartl, D. L., Clark, A. G., & Clark, A. G. (1997). Principles of population genetics (Vol. 116). Sunderland: Sinauer associates.
- Lande, R. (1976). Natural selection and random genetic drift in phenotypic evolution. Evolution, 314-334.
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