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Article: Genetic Drift
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- Genetics
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CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2003 The Gale Group Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Genetic Drift
Genetic drift is the random change in the genetic composition of a population due to chance events causing unequal participation of individuals in producing succeeding generations. Along with natural selection, genetic drift is a principal force in evolution.
Allele Frequencies
Different forms of a gene are called
alleles
. Individual members of a population have different alleles. Together, all the alleles for all the genes in a population constitute the "gene pool" of the population. Through reproduction, individuals pass their genes on to the next generation. If considering only the effect of genetic drift, the larger the population is, the more stable the frequency ...