Three cellular or molecular mechanisms that introduce variation into the gene pool of a plant or animal population are:

mutation, sexual reproduction, and balanced polymorphism. It is important to have sources of variation in a gene pool because genetic variation allows new alleles to enter a population. Additionally, populations lacking genetic variation, existing natural selection would filter out all substandard species that are not adaptive to an evolving environment. Mutations, a change in the nucleotide-base sequence of a gene or DNA molecule, are crucial factors responsible for genetic variation. Mutations can be caused by radiation, viruses, or errors that occur during meiosis and DNA replication, among other causes. These changes in the gene sequencing can add new genes, prevent current genes from functioning properly, or have no effect at all. The impact it has on an individuals phenotype can range from highly adaptive to essentially useless. For example, primates have opposable thumbs that make gripping and lifting possible; this trait is a result of a mutation. On the other hand, some mutations can cause disease or disability such as cancer or deafness. Balanced polymorphism is another mechanism that can introduce variation and alter the gene pool. This mechanism can be described as the preservation of diversity by natural selection. Heterozygote advantage, a sub category of balanced polymorphism, is when the heterozygote has a better fitness than homozygote. For example, individuals that are carriers of the sickle-cell anemia gene are immune to Malaria, whereas homozygous dominant individuals will similarly not have the sickle-cell disease but will not be immune to Malaria. Thus, the heterozygote advantage increases their fitness relative to the homozygous individuals. Over time, the trait will increase the number of heterozygote carriers which in turn, adds variation to the gene pool. Thirdly, sexual reproduction can introduce variation into the gene pool of a population because the zygote cell has completely different gene combinations from its parent cells. This process, which occurs only in eukaryotes, allows every species in a population to vary from one another and the variation of phenotypes can result in natural selection. It is also important for sexual reproduction to occur within multiple ecosystems, in order to ensure that other genes are constantly being introduced to a certain habitat. Furthermore, Mutations are also an evolutionary mechanism altering the gene pool. Mutations can virtually occur in any cell in a plants or animals body that contains DNA; only mutations that are in reproductive cells can actually lead to evolution. For example, the radiation from the nuclear plant in Japan has distorted the

genes of many butterflies causing them to become mutant butterflies. A few months after the radiation leak, 12% of this butterfly population had mutations; currently, 34% of the population has the phenotype of this mutation. This illustrates that the radiation changed the DNA sequencing in the reproductive cells and is easily passed on to offspring which will lead to evolution of this species in Japan. Another mechanism of evolution is genetic drift, which refers to the change over time of gene frequencies in a population due to random sampling effects. The two ways genetic drift is expressed is through the bottleneck effect and the founder effect. The Bottleneck effect is a loss in population due to a disturbance or disaster. The surviving population has a different gene pool than the original population; thus, alleles could be lost. The founder effect is when a part of a population is isolated from its parent population. As a result, the amount of genetic variation is reduced and there is a change is the frequency of alleles. Lastly, gene flow can lead to evolution. Gene flow is defined as the addition and subtraction of genes within a population. Immigration and Emigration can often lead to changes in gene frequency. Gene flow within a population will increase its genetic variation; gene flow across populations can reduce the amount of genetic variation; thus, reducing the chance of speciation. For example, if a flood temporarily connects two bodies of water, populations can spread their genes to other individuals of different populations.