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The Hardy-Weinberg theorem was created in order to determine whether a

population is unchanging or not. It states that genotype and allele frequencies stay
the same unless 5 influences interfere. These influences are: small population size,
presence of gene flow, presence of selective mating, natural selection, and
presence of mutations. When a population size is smaller,

When a population is small, genetic variation is reduced since there are less
partners to mate with. The bottleneck effect connects with this since it also reduces
genetic variation. The Bottleneck effect occurs when something such as a fire, a
massive hunt, or a disaster occurs that depletes a population. Thus, a population
needs to interbreed and in doing so, decreases genetic variation and increases
genetic drift, the change in the frequency of alleles. Gene flow is when alleles move
in and out of the gene pool. A common example of this is pollen since it can travel
to different environments. This allows new genes to be introduced into a population
causing genetic variation within that population. When populations select their
partners, they choose the ones with the best traits and produce the most offspring.
So, the ones with the less desirable traits eventually perish. The alleles that survive
continue to pass on and dominate the population. This is how populations, not
individuals evolve. Lastly, mutations add to genetic variation since they are random
occurrences in an organism’s gene that can be passed down.

The population must be very large in size.


It must be isolated from other populations. (no gene flow)
No mutations.
Random mating.
No natural selection.

There are 5 basic causes of microevolution:

1. Genetic Drift: This represents random changes in small gene pools due to
sampling errors in propagation of alleles. The bottleneck effect and founder effect
are prime examples of genetic drift. In either case the number of individuals in a
population is drastically reduced distorting the original allelic frequencies.

2. Gene Flow: The movement of alleles into and out of a gene pool. Migration of an
organism into different areas can cause the allelic frequencies of that population to
increase. Most populations are not isolated, which is contrary to the Hardy-
Weinberg Theorem.

3. Mutations: These changes in the genome of an organism are an important source


of natural selection.

4. Nonrandom mating: Inbreeding is a popular form of nonrandom mating.


Individuals will mate more frequently with close individuals than more distant ones.
Assortive mating, is another form of nonrandom mating. Here the individuals will
mate with partners that closely resemble themselves in certain characteristics.

5. Natural Selection: Populations vary in the types of individuals and their


reproductive success. Those individuals who leave more offspring behind than
others, pass on more of their alleles and have a better success rate in dominating
the population.

3. Evolution is one of the unifying themes of biology. Evolution involves change in


the frequencies of alleles in
a population. For a particular genetic locus in a population, the frequency of the
recessive allele (a) is 0.4 and
the frequency of the dominant allele (A) is 0.6.
(a) What is the frequency of each genotype (AA, Aa, aa) in this population? What is
the frequency of
the dominant phenotype?
(b) How can the Hardy-Weinberg principle of genetic equilibrium be used to
determine whether this
population is evolving?
(c) Identify a particular environmental change and describe how it might alter allelic
frequencies in
this population. Explain which condition of the Hardy-Weinberg principle would not
be met.

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