Group nine

question: discuss the concept of natural

selection and genetic drift.
COURSE UNIT: POPULATION AND QUANTITATIVE GENETICS

MEMBERS

AMANIA RUTH 17/APN/BU/R/0006

NDATABAYE PETER 17/AIM/BU/R/0007

 Natural selection is the process that causes group of different organisms to
change or evolve over time .

 Or Is the process by which organism are physically , genetically and

behaviorally are well adapted to the environment to survive and reproduce while
those that are not adapted either die early or fail to reproduce .

 The better adapted organism pass on their genes to the next generation such that
with cumulative genetic changes over many generations can lead to the
immergence of a new species.
Examples of Natural Selection:
 Skeletal Adaptations.
COMPONETS OF NATURAL SELECTION.
 •Variation. Organisms (within populations) exhibit individual variation in
appearance and behavior.

 • Inheritance. Some traits are consistently passed on from parent to

offspring.

 • High rate of population growth.

 • Differential survival and reproduction.

TYPES OF NATURAL SELECTION.

 There mainly three types of natural selection;

 Stabilizing selection.

 Directional selection.

 Disruptive selection.
Stabilizing selection.

 This is a type of natural selection where the phenotypic feature consider with the optimal environment
conditions.

 Here individuals will have an average of the character which is based adapted to the environment.

 Differential motality will favor the ideal characteristics and will tend to eliminate Individual at the
extreme of the characteristic in the population .

 Stabilizing selection pressure dose not promote evolutionally change i.e. maintains the phenotypic
stability with in the population from one generation to another.
Stabilizing selection
Directional or progressive selection.
 This is a type of natural selection that occurs when one side of the spectrum of a certain trait is
favored over the other .

 for instance if smallest organism are totally protected .the population will tend to get much
larger .if the opposite is true the population will decrease in size over time .

 Directional selection brings about evolutionally changes i.e. it favors the emergency of new
forms of a species by producing a selection pressure which favors the increase in the frequency of
a new alelles within a population.
 Disruptive selection.
This is a type of selection where selection pressure acts from within the population as a result of
creased competition pushing the phenotype a way from the population niche with respect for a
articular characteristic towards the extreme of the population .

This can split the populations into two sub populations such that if a gene flow between the two
oups will be prevented .each population may give rise to a new species or appearance of a different
henotype within the same population .

This occurs when fluctuating environment conditions favour the presence of more than one
henotype of a population.it is very rare but very impotant in bringing evolutionally change.
Disruptive selection.
There also other types of natural selection which
include;

Sexual selection;

 Sexual selection is a kind of natural selection in

which the different genders in a species exert
forces on each other that changes their
appearance.
 Predator prey selection.
 In this type of selection the predator will always try to consume the
easiest prey ,this will cause the prey to evolve to become harder to
catch. When that happens, the predator is also selected in a way that
causes the population to become more efficient predators. This cycle is
continuous and predators and prey are constantly changing each other..
 Example of predator prey selection
 The cheetah is a widely known as the fastest land predator .cheetah
main prey item is the antelope and is fast as well .

 Faster cheetahs experience is an advantage over other cheetah, in that

way they catch more antelope.

 Eventually slow cheetahs will die off and faster cheetah will die
population will explode catching the antelope
Example of predator-prey selection.
 Artificial selection.
 This is the altering of the evolution of species by imposing on the
organism .this process of selection is done by humans.

 It forms the basis of plant and animal breeding .

 It can be done through inbreeding and out breeding.

Example of artificial selection
 Definition of population drift
 A gradual movement of people/organisms that lowers the population in
one area and increases it in another.

 Or Genetic drift (also known as allelic drift ).

 Is the change in the frequency of an existing gene variant (allele) in a

population due to random sampling of organisms.
 Types of genetic drift.
 Bottlenecks and founder effects

 Genetic drift can cause big losses of genetic variation for small
populations.

 Population bottlenecks occur when a population's size is reduced for at

least one generation. Because genetic drift acts more quickly to reduce
genetic variation in small populations, undergoing a bottleneck can
reduce a population's genetic variation by a lot, even if the bottleneck
doesn't last for very many generations.
Bottle neck diagram.
Cont..
 Founder effects.

A founder effect occurs when a new colony is started by a

few members of the original population. This small
population size means that the colony may have:

 Reduced genetic variation from the original population.

A non-random sample of the genes in the original

population.
Founder effect diagram.
 Genetic drift v/s natural selection
Genetic drift.
 There is a random process.
 Does not occur due to
environmental challenges.
 Non directional.
 Non adaptive evolution.
 Important allele may disappear.
 Operate on neutral allele
 Loss of genetic variation.
Natural selection.
 Non random process
 Occur due to environmental
changes.
 Directional.
 Generation of adaptive traits.
 Ends up with survival for the
fittest.
 Operate on any allele.
 Conclusion.

 Both genetic drift and natural selection lead to up rise of new species
due to genetic variation and environmental factors interacting together.
 References.
 Bonner, J. T. 1988. The Evolution of Complexity. Princeton: Princeton
Univ. Press.

 Fisher, R. A. 1930. The Genetical Theory of Natural Selection. Oxford:

Oxford Univ. Press (there is a later edition).

 "Genetic Drift and the Founder Effect". Evolution Library (Web

resource). Evolution. Boston, MA: WGBH Educational Foundation; Clear
Blue Sky Productions, Inc. 2001.