Talk:Genetic drift
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To Do
- Generalize example to differing initial frequencies
- Generalize example to combined selection/drift
- Formula for probability of drift
- Formula for expected (magnitude) of drift
- Role in extinction, fixation, substitution
- Probability of substitution
- Balance between mutation influx and extinction/substitution
- Neutral evolution
- Drift -> divergence -> finds new points where selection exists
- Gene duplication -> more drift -> new function
- Loss of unused traits (example: sight in dark cave)
- Diffusion models of genetic drift
Marble analogy
“To represent this reproduction, randomly select BUT DO NOT REMOVE a marble from the original jar and deposit a new marble with the same colour into a new jar.”
I struggled a little with the logic of this analogy until I understood it as amended above. If I select a kitten from a litter I take it with me.
Someone with more authority could make the change if deemed helpful. =avallone (talk) 15:02, 5 May 2024 (UTC)
Example with marbles in a jar
The example as given here makes no sense and it does not reflect what is given in reference [99, as can be easily verified. 2601:589:4801:CDB0:CD15:DF1C:C8FB:85AB (talk) 01:23, 9 December 2024 (UTC)
Drift load
I added a sentence about "drift load" which was reverted because an editor thought the term was obscure and irrelevant ("not in any of [their] genetics textbooks"). I can appreciate that, but it is in one of my genetics textbooks: Conservation and the Genomics of Populations, 3rd ed., 2022, Allendorf et. al. (Google books link below) It is a term used to describe a specific consequence of genetic drift, lowered fitness due to fixation of deleterious alleles. I think if you take a look at that textbook, or my references, you'll see drift load is not obscure to those most concerned with genetic drift, conservationists, and is highly relevant to genetic drift as a topic, being a quantifiable consequence of it. I hope you'll take another look, @Genome42, and I'd love to hear other views from any editors watching this page. Thanks!
https://books.google.com/books?id=F6JaEAAAQBAJ&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&lpg=PP1&dq=Conservation%20and%20the%20Genomics%20of%20Populations&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q=%22drift%20load%22&f=false CarolineIngles (talk) 04:22, 19 March 2025 (UTC)