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Negative Selection (natural Selection)
In natural selection, negative selection or purifying selection is the selective removal of alleles that are deleterious. This can result in stabilising selection through the purging of deleterious genetic polymorphisms that arise through random mutations. Purging of deleterious alleles can be achieved on the population genetics level, with as little as a single point mutation being the unit of selection. In such a case, carriers of the harmful point mutation have fewer offspring each generation, reducing the frequency of the mutation in the gene pool. In the case of strong negative selection on a locus, the purging of deleterious variants will result in the occasional removal of linked variation, producing a decrease in the level of variation surrounding the locus under selection. The incidental purging of non-deleterious alleles due to such spatial proximity to deleterious alleles is called background selection. This effect increases with lower mutation rate but decreases wit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Natural Selection
Natural selection is the differential survival and reproduction of individuals due to differences in phenotype. It is a key mechanism of evolution, the change in the heritable traits characteristic of a population over generations. Charles Darwin popularised the term "natural selection", contrasting it with artificial selection, which in his view is intentional, whereas natural selection is not. Variation exists within all populations of organisms. This occurs partly because random mutations arise in the genome of an individual organism, and their offspring can inherit such mutations. Throughout the lives of the individuals, their genomes interact with their environments to cause variations in traits. The environment of a genome includes the molecular biology in the cell, other cells, other individuals, populations, species, as well as the abiotic environment. Because individuals with certain variants of the trait tend to survive and reproduce more than individual ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Balancing Selection
Balancing selection refers to a number of selective processes by which multiple alleles (different versions of a gene) are actively maintained in the gene pool of a population at frequencies larger than expected from genetic drift alone. Balancing selection is rare compared to purifying selection. It can occur by various mechanisms, in particular, when the heterozygotes for the alleles under consideration have a higher fitness than the homozygote. In this way genetic polymorphism is conserved. Evidence for balancing selection can be found in the number of alleles in a population which are maintained above mutation rate frequencies. All modern research has shown that this significant genetic variation is ubiquitous in panmictic populations. There are several mechanisms (which are not exclusive within any given population) by which balancing selection works to maintain polymorphism. The two major and most studied are heterozygote advantage and frequency-dependent selection. M ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Selection
Selection may refer to: Science * Selection (biology), also called natural selection, selection in evolution ** Sex selection, in genetics ** Mate selection, in mating ** Sexual selection in humans, in human sexuality ** Human mating strategies, in human sexuality * Social selection, within social groups * Selection (linguistics), the ability of predicates to determine the semantic content of their arguments * Selection in schools, the admission of students on the basis of selective criteria * Selection effect, a distortion of data arising from the way that the data are collected * A selection, or choice function, a function that selects an element from a set Religion * Divine selection, selection by God * Papal selection, selection by clergy Computing * Selection (user interface) ** X Window selection * Selection (genetic algorithm) * Selection (relational algebra) * Selection-based search, a search engine system in which the user invokes a search query using only t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stabilizing Selection
Stabilizing selection (not to be confused with negative or purifying selection) is a type of natural selection in which the population mean stabilizes on a particular non-extreme trait value. This is thought to be the most common mechanism of action for natural selection because most traits do not appear to change drastically over time. Stabilizing selection commonly uses negative selection (a.k.a. purifying selection) to select against extreme values of the character. Stabilizing selection is the opposite of disruptive selection. Instead of favoring individuals with extreme phenotypes, it favors the intermediate variants. Stabilizing selection tends to remove the more severe phenotypes, resulting in the reproductive success of the norm or average phenotypes. This means that most common phenotype in the population is selected for and continues to dominate in future generations. History The Ukrainian evolutionary biologist Ivan Schmalhausen founded the theory of stabilizing se ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mutation–selection Balance
Mutation–selection balance is an equilibrium in the number of deleterious alleles in a population that occurs when the rate at which deleterious alleles are created by mutation equals the rate at which deleterious alleles are eliminated by selection.Herron, JC and S Freeman. 2014. Evolutionary Analysis, 5th Edition. Pearson. The majority of genetic mutations are neutral or deleterious; beneficial mutations are relatively rare. The resulting influx of deleterious mutations into a population over time is counteracted by negative selection, which acts to purge deleterious mutations. Setting aside other factors (e.g., balancing selection, and genetic drift), the equilibrium number of deleterious alleles is then determined by a balance between the deleterious mutation rate and the rate at which selection purges those mutations. Mutation–selection balance was originally proposed to explain how genetic variation is maintained in populations, although several other ways for deleterious ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Koinophilia
Koinophilia is an evolutionary hypothesis proposing that during sexual selection, animals preferentially seek mates with a minimum of unusual or mutant features, including functionality, appearance and behavior. Koinophilia intends to explain the clustering of sexual organisms into species and other issues described by Darwin's Dilemma. The term derives from the Greek word ''koinos'' meaning "common" or "that which is shared", and ''philia'', meaning "fondness". Natural selection causes beneficial inherited features to become more common at the expense of their disadvantageous counterparts. The koinophilia hypothesis proposes that a sexually-reproducing animal would therefore be expected to avoid individuals with rare or unusual features, and to prefer to mate with individuals displaying a predominance of common or average features. Mutants with strange, odd or peculiar features would be avoided because most mutations that manifest themselves as changes in appearance, functio ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Genetic Purging
Genetic purging is the reduction of the frequency of a deleterious allele, caused by an increased efficiency of natural selection prompted by inbreeding. Purging occurs because many deleterious alleles only express all their harmful effect when homozygous, present in two copies. During inbreeding, as related individuals mate, they produce offspring that are more likely to be homozygous. Deleterious alleles appear more often, making individuals less fit genetically, i.e. they pass fewer copies of their genes to future generations. Put another way, natural selection removes inbreeding children and their offspring with deleterious alleles from the gene pool, purging the deleterious alleles. Purging reduces both the overall number of recessive deleterious alleles and the decline of mean fitness caused by inbreeding (the inbreeding depression for fitness). The term "purge" is sometimes used for selection against deleterious alleles in a general way. It would avoid ambiguity to use "pur ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fluctuating Selection
Fluctuating selection is a mode of natural selection characterized by the fluctuation of the direction of selection on a given phenotype over a relatively brief period of evolutionary time. For example, a species of plant may come in two varieties: one which prefers wetter soil and one which prefers dryer soil. During a period of wet years, the wet variety will be more fit and produce more offspring, and thereby increase the frequency of wet-preferring plants. If this wet period is followed by drought, the dry variety will be selected for and its numbers will increase. As periods of dryness and wetness fluctuate, so too does selection on dry-preferring and wet-preferring plants. Fluctuating selection is also manifest at the genic level. Consider two alleles, A and B, which are found at the same locus. Fluctuating selection dynamics are at play when selection favors A at time t0, B at t1 and A again at t2. Fluctuating selection has been characterized by several mathematical models ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dysgenics
Dysgenics (also known as cacogenics) is the decrease in prevalence of traits deemed to be either socially desirable or well adapted to their environment due to selective pressure disfavoring the reproduction of those traits. The adjective "dysgenic" is the antonym of " eugenic". In 1915 the term was used by David Starr Jordan to describe the supposed deleterious effects of modern warfare on group-level genetic fitness because of its tendency to kill physically healthy men while preserving the disabled at home. Similar concerns had been raised by early eugenicists and social Darwinists during the 19th century, and continued to play a role in scientific and public policy debates throughout the 20th century. More recent concerns about supposed dysgenic effects in human populations have been advanced by the controversial psychologist Richard Lynn, notably in his 1996 book '' Dysgenics: Genetic Deterioration in Modern Populations'', which argued that a reduction in selection pressures ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Disruptive Selection
Disruptive selection, also called diversifying selection, describes changes in population genetics in which extreme values for a trait are favored over intermediate values. In this case, the variance of the trait increases and the population is divided into two distinct groups. In this more individuals acquire peripheral character value at both ends of the distribution curve. Overview Natural selection is known to be one of the most important biological processes behind evolution. There are many variations of traits, and some cause greater or lesser reproductive success of the individual. The effect of selection is to promote certain alleles, traits, and individuals that have a higher chance to survive and reproduce in their specific environment. Since the environment has a carrying capacity, nature acts on this mode of selection on individuals to let only the most fit offspring survive and reproduce to their full potential. The more advantageous the trait is the more com ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Directional Selection
In population genetics, directional selection, is a mode of negative natural selection in which an extreme phenotype is favored over other phenotypes, causing the allele frequency to shift over time in the direction of that phenotype. Under directional selection, the advantageous allele increases as a consequence of differences in survival and reproduction among different phenotypes. The increases are independent of the dominance of the allele, and even if the allele is recessive, it will eventually become fixed. Directional selection was first described by Charles Darwin in the book ''On the Origin of Species'' as a form of natural selection. Other types of natural selection include stabilizing and disruptive selection. Each type of selection contains the same principles, but is slightly different. Disruptive selection favors both extreme phenotypes, different from one extreme in directional selection. Stabilizing selection favors the middle phenotype, causing the decline ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Assortative Mating
Assortative mating (also referred to as positive assortative mating or homogamy) is a mating pattern and a form of sexual selection in which individuals with similar phenotypes or genotypes mate with one another more frequently than would be expected under a random mating pattern. A majority of the phenotypes that are subject to assortative mating are body size, visual signals (e.g. color, pattern), and sexually selected traits such as crest size. The opposite of assortative is disassortative mating. Causes Several hypotheses have been proposed to explain the phenomenon of assortative mating. Assortative mating has evolved from a combination of different factors, which vary across different species. Assortative mating with respect to body size can arise as a consequence of intrasexual competition. In some species, size is correlated with fecundity in females. Therefore, males choose to mate with larger females, with the larger males defeating the smaller males in courting ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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