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Genetic drift and polygenic inheritance
Author(s) -
Livingstone Frank B.
Publication year - 1972
Publication title -
american journal of physical anthropology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.146
H-Index - 119
eISSN - 1096-8644
pISSN - 0002-9483
DOI - 10.1002/ajpa.1330370115
Subject(s) - genetic drift , biology , fixation (population genetics) , polygene , selection (genetic algorithm) , allele , inheritance (genetic algorithm) , genetics , evolutionary biology , quantitative trait locus , genotype , phenotype , gene , major gene , natural selection , genetic variation , computer science , machine learning
The interaction of random gene drift and selection was studied by computer simulation for two quantitative traits, which were considered to approximate stature and skin color differences in human populations. The expected effects of gene drift, fixation of alleles and reduction of genotypic and phenotypic variances, were found in the simulation. Stabilizing selection, which seems to be the type of selection operating on these traits, was found to increase the effects of gene drift. Since there seems to be no evidence of reduction in phenotypic and presumably genotypic variability in small human populations, the applicability of these simple genetic models to human traits raises problems for which several possible solutions exist.