gene pool

(noun)

the complete set of unique alleles that would be found by inspecting the genetic material of every living member of a species or population

Related Terms

Examples of gene pool in the following topics:

  • Population Genetics

    • The gene pool is the sum of all the alleles at all genes in a population.
    • Random events that alter allele frequencies will have a much larger effect when the gene pool is small.
    • Therefore, many different populations, with very different and uniform gene pools, can all originate from the same, larger population.
    • Here are three possible outcomes of the founder effect, each with gene pools separate from the original populations.
    • Define a population gene pool and explain how the size of the gene pool can affect the evolutionary success of a population

  • Gene Flow and Mutation

    • An important evolutionary force is gene flow: the flow of alleles in and out of a population due to the migration of individuals or gametes.
    • Maintained gene flow between two populations can also lead to a combination of the two gene pools, reducing the genetic variation between the two groups.
    • Gene flow strongly acts against speciation, by recombining the gene pools of the groups, and thus, repairing the developing differences in genetic variation that would have led to full speciation and creation of daughter species.
    • Gene flow can occur when an individual travels from one geographic location to another.
    • Explain how gene flow and mutations can influence the allele frequencies of a population

  • Defining Population Evolution

    • Because these individuals can share genes and pass on combinations of genes to the next generation, the collection of these genes is called a gene pool.
    • A single individual cannot evolve alone; evolution is the process of changing the gene frequencies within a gene pool.
    • Therefore, the frequency of a gene may increase in a population through genetic hitchhiking if its proximal genes confer a benefit.
    • Gene flow is the exchange of genes between populations or between species.If the gene pools between two populations are different, the exchange of genes can introduce variation that is advantageous or disadvantageous to one of the populations.
    • In this simulation, there is fixation in the blue gene variation within five generations.

  • Genetic Drift

    • Over successive generation, these selection pressures can change the gene pool and the traits within the population.
    • His offspring may continue to dominate the troop and pass on their genes as well.
    • If one individual of a population of 10 individuals happens to die at a young age before leaving any offspring to the next generation, all of its genes (1/10 of the population's gene pool) will be suddenly lost.
    • In a population of 100, that individual represents only 1 percent of the overall gene pool; therefore, genetic drift has much less impact on the larger population's genetic structure.
    • The bottleneck effect occurs when only a few individuals survive and reduces variation in the gene pool of a population.

  • Varying Rates of Speciation

    • Because its gene pool quickly became so small, any variation that surfaces and that aids in surviving the new conditions becomes the predominant form.

  • The Biological Species Concept

    • Different species may have different genes that are active in development; therefore, it may not be possible to develop a viable offspring with two different sets of directions.
    • Populations of species share a gene pool: a collection of all the variants of genes in the species.

  • Classification of Prokaryotes

    • Others have argued that the three domains of life arose simultaneously, from a set of varied cells that formed a single gene pool.
    • Certain prokaryotes can live in extreme environments such as the Morning Glory pool, a hot spring in Yellowstone National Park.

  • Variations in Size and Number of Genes

    • Nucleotide variation is measured for discrete sections of the chromosomes, called genes.
    • During sexual reproduction, offspring inherit alleles from both parents and these alleles might be slightly different, especially if there has been migration or hybridization of organisms, so that the parents may come from different populations and gene pools.
    • In humans, more proteins are encoded per gene than in other species.
    • The repeat-rich regions contain genes coding for host interaction proteins.
    • This figure represents the human genome, categorized by function of each gene product, given both as number of genes and as percentage of all genes.

  • Methods of Reproducing

    • Organisms that reproduce sexually yield a smaller number of offspring, but the large amount of variation in their genes makes them less susceptible to disease.
    • Sexual reproduction ensures a mixing of the gene pool of the species.

  • Web, Network, and Ring of Life Models

    • The recognition of the importance of Horizontal gene transfer (HGT), especially in the evolution of prokaryotes, has caused some to propose abandoning the classic "tree of life" model.
    • The hypothesis is that eukaryotes evolved not from a single prokaryotic ancestor, but from a pool of many species that were sharing genes by HGT mechanisms.
    • The "ring of life" is a phylogenetic model where all three domains of life evolved from a pool of primitive prokaryotes .
    • Using the conditioned reconstruction algorithm, it proposes a ring-like model in which species of all three domains (Archaea, Bacteria, and Eukarya) evolved from a single pool of gene-swapping prokaryotes.
    • According to the "ring of life" phylogenetic model, the three domains of life evolved from a pool of primitive prokaryotes.