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Title: Genetic drift scenario Post by: beardy on Feb 17, 2014 Imagine that we discover a moon of Jupiter has a habitable atmosphere and abundant water. A group of 20 people colonizes this moon and has no further physical contact with Earth. Would genetic drift have an effect on this group? If so, what would its impact likely be? Would natural selection have an effect? If so, in general terms, what would its impact likely be? Give a scenario in which natural selection acts on these colonists.
Title: Re: Genetic drift scenario Post by: padre on Feb 17, 2014 Would genetic drift have an effect on this group? Yes because the population size is very small. Genetic drift occurs when the population size is limited and therefore by chance, certain alleles increase or decrease in frequency. Would natural selection have an effect? If the new area contains the same sort of habitat as before, then it might not, but if they are living in a whole different environment, with different animals, vegetation, etc, then yes. |