Assignment name

Procedure and uses of refrigerator in lab

Subject
Iab instrumentation
Submitted by
Muhammad Imran
Submitted to
Sir Aman
Student ID:
12270
Programs :
BS-MLT
Semester: 3rd
Date 14/10/21
Genetic drift
Definition
Genetic drift is a change in allele frequency in a population, due to a random selection of certain
genes. Oftentimes, mutations within the DNA can have no effect on the fitness of an organism.
These changes in genetics can increase or decrease in a population, simply due to chance.

Explanation
Although variations of genes (also known as alleles) can be selected for because they help or
hinder an organism, other mutations can have no effect. When the allele itself is not
responsible for the change in its frequency in a population, genetic drift is acting on the
allele. The graph below shows different trajectories for the same genes over time. As you can
see, the frequency of these genes can change drastically over time, especially with the smallest
populations. In the largest populations, the allele frequency of each gene stays relatively
stable. This happens because the genes are not affecting fitness, and thus do not have
a natural selection pressure against or for the allele. In the smallest populations, the
frequency of these genes can fluctuate greatly. Some become fixed within the population, while
others disappear. These chance events which lead to changes in frequency are called genetic
drift.

Genetic Drift Examples

In a hypothetical population

A population of 100 rabbits lives in the woods. The rabbits have many different coat colors:
black, brown, tan, white, grey, and even red. In the population, the different alleles that create
coat color are equally distributed. A disease comes into the rabbit population and kills 98 of the
rabbits. The only rabbits that are left are red and grey rabbits, simply by chance. The genes have
thus “drifted” from 6 alleles to only 2. This is an example of a bottleneck effect.

In real life

Genetic drift happens all the time in populations, although it is not easily seen. Often, mutations
arise that have little effect on the organism. These mutations get passed on if the organism
reproduces, and do not get passed on if the organism does not survive. Although genetic drift
used to be thought of in only small populations, even large populations experience genetic
drift of certain alleles. This happens because a small number of individuals carry the alleles.
Whether or not these alleles are duplicated is not a function of natural selection, but of chance.
Many alleles come or go in populations without affecting great change[1].
Genetic Drift Examples
Figure 1: Genetic drift example: Genetic drift is more significant in small populations with large
possibilities of developing or losing the new trait. In this example, a population of brown rabbits
with allele (B) their number is greater than white rabbits with allele (b). However, the two alleles
are present in the population with equal frequency in the first generation. In the next generation
when half the rabbits reproduce, the number of rabbits carrying the allele (b) decreases while the
number of rabbits carrying the allele (B) increases, respectively. In the following generation,
rabbits reproduce with a dominant brown coat by chance and the allele (b) is not present by
chance. Credit: Clark, Openstax.org
Genetic drift, gene flow, mutations, and natural selection are responsible for the change in the
gene pool over time. Example of genetic drift: a population of rabbits with alleles B and b, both
alleles are present in equal frequencies p = 0.5 and q = 0.5 if 10 parents reproduce the probability
of having an offspring with alleles B or b is 0.5; however, by chance, a slight difference in the
offspring allele frequency might occur due to random sampling. As a result, in the next
generation, the allele frequencies will change slightly to new frequencies by chance to become p
= 0.4 and q = 0.6. in the following generations, the random sampling of alleles continues and the
change in allele frequency will be greatly different from the initial 0.5 frequency due to genetic
drift. Even though genetic drifting is one of the factors that participate in the evolutionary
process of the genetic pool by increasing or decreasing a certain allele’s frequency, however, it
does not influence the adaptation of individuals to the environment since the affected genes may
be harmful or beneficial genes[2].

Causes Genetic Drift

Genetic drift is much more likely in smaller populations of organisms, as seen in the image
found in this article. The individual lines in the graph track the frequency of alleles in a given
population. When the population is small and many alleles exist (see the first graph), any of the
alleles can quickly become fixed or extinct in the population. When there are many organisms in
the population (see the last graph), there is less of a chance of losing an entire allele, because
many organisms carry the allele and it is less likely they will all be wiped out.

Genetic drift can easily be confused with natural selection. The difference is whether or not
the allele is actively participating in the change in allele frequencies. If the allele affects an
organism in a way that causes more reproduction of the DNA, the allele will increase in
frequency. If it causes harm, it will decrease. This is caused by the allele’s direct effects on the
organism and the environment. This is natural selection. When the allele is increased or
decreased simply because it was present in the random organisms that survived, this is genetic
drift.

Types of Genetic Drift

Population Bottleneck

A population bottleneck is a type of genetic drift in which a population’s size severely

decreases. Competition, disease, or predation leads to these massive decreases in population
size. The allele pool is now determined by the organisms which did not die. Some alleles
increase in frequency simply because they are the only alleles left. This type of genetic drift can
be seen when people don’t take their entire course of antibiotics.
Antibiotics kill harmful bacteria in your system, regardless of what alleles they have. Antibiotics
cause a massive reduction in harmful bacteria. This stops symptoms of the disease. A small
population will survive if a patient quits their antibiotic early. This much smaller population
could have allele frequencies that are very different from the original population of bacteria.
These changes do not reflect the success or failure of the different alleles, but rather the effects of
a random selection of bacteria. The new alleles will dominate the population until selection or
more genetic drift cause the allele frequencies to change.

Founder Effect

In another type of genetic drift known as the founder effect, a new population is formed, or
“founded”, in a new location. If this new population does not interact and reproduce with the
main population, the allele frequencies in this population will be much different from that
of the parent population. Many islands contain species that only exist on a single
island because of the founder effect. For instance, if only two birds of a species land on an
island, their alleles alone will account for the diversity present.

While these alleles will dominate at first, mutations will arise in the population that will lead to
new adaptations. This new adaptation stays with the founding population. With enough time, the
two populations can diverge to a point which they can no longer interbreed. Species often
separate in this way.