In: Biology
how does population size affect additive genetic variance and divergence of quantitative traits
Additive genetic variance involves the inheritance of a particular allele from the parent and this allele's independant effect on the specific phenotype, which will cause the phenotype deviation from the mean phenotype.
Genetic diversity is the total number of genetic characteristics in the genetic makeup of a species.
According to neutral quantitative genetic theory, population bottlenecks are expected to decrease standing levels of additive genetic variance of quantitative traits. If the genetic architecture underlying a trait is controlled by genes that are acting additively, a population bottleneck is predicted to reduce additive genetic variance proportional to the inbreeding coefficient. Thus, for additive traits, population bottlenecks are expected to decrease the adaptability of populations. However, models assuming dominance or epistasis predict that there is some chance for an increase in additive genetic variance for quantitative traits within populations that go through a bottleneck. When there are dominance interactions between alleles within loci, a population bottleneck may increase the frequency of recessive alleles, increasing their overall effect and additive genetic variance.