Question

If genetic drift causes a population to become less diverse, how does it affect the degree of similarity between populations? Can this be thought of as a source of diversity?

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Answer 1

Ans) Genetic drift is the random change in the allele frequencies caused by the sampling error across generations in a finite population. Small population size can excert a strong force on the evolution of populations through genetic drift. While it occurs in all populations, drift can be a major driving force for changing allele frequenciesw in small populations. If the small populations subjected to drift, the rate of evolutionary change can be speed up dramatically, allele and genotype frequencies can be change unpredictably from one generation to the next. Smaller the population, the more extreme these fluctuation tend to be. The actual change in allele frequency caused by the genetic drift is r4andom for any generation. but the effect of drift is accumulated over the time. Drift is a process of differential reproductive process, however the key element of the genetic drift is that which individuals survive and reproduce is rendom which means they are unrelated to the genotype and the phenotypes of that species. The allelic frequency may change dramatically from one generation to the next.

The important popint of drift is:-

Drift reduces genetic variation in populations, potentially reduces the abilikty to evolve in response to new selective pressures.

Genetic drift act fast and its effect is greater on the small number of population. It play a greater role porticularly for endangered species.

It contribute to speciation. AQ small isolated population may diverge from the larger population through genetic drift.

The last point clearly indicate that if isolated speies can diverge from large population by gaining new characteristics to form new species. Aquireing of new characteristics help to diverge the species and thus a diversity is enriched. This can be one of the point of diversity.