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Genetic drift and the loss of alleles versus heterozygosity
Author(s) -
Allendorf Fred W.
Publication year - 1986
Publication title -
zoo biology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.5
H-Index - 54
eISSN - 1098-2361
pISSN - 0733-3188
DOI - 10.1002/zoo.1430050212
Subject(s) - loss of heterozygosity , biology , allele , population , population bottleneck , selection (genetic algorithm) , genetics , bottleneck , genetic variation , genetic drift , evolutionary biology , gene , microsatellite , demography , artificial intelligence , sociology , computer science , embedded system
Most studies of the loss of genetic variation caused by bottlenecks in population size have used heterozygosity as a measure of genetic variation. In this paper, I compare the effects of bottlenecks on the loss of alleles, as well as the reduction in heterozygosity. Population bottlenecks of short duration will have little effect on heterozygosity but are expected to reduce severely the number of alleles present. Heterozygosity provides a good measure of the capability of a population to respond to selection immediately following a bottleneck. However, the number of alleles remaining is important for the long‐term response to selection and survival of populations and species.