STAT 2230 Lecture Notes - Chromosome, Homologous Chromosome, Genetic Recombination

• School: University of Guelph
• Department: Statistics
• Course: STAT 2230
• Professor: Dan Meegan

Document Summary

The reproductive contribution of a phenotype to subsequent generations relative to the contributions of other phenotypes is called its fitness. The fitness of a phenotype is determined by the average rates of survival and reproduction of individuals with that phenotype. Sexual selection is a special type of natural selection that acts on characteristics that determine the reproductive success. An allele that does not affect the fitness of an organism is called a neutral allele. Neutral alleles are unaffected by natural selection. Neutral alleles tend to accumulate in a population over time, providing it with considerable genetic variation. Sexual recombination amplifies the number of possible genotypes. Sexual recombination generates an endless variety of genotypic combinations that increases the evolutionary potential of populations a long-term advantage of sex. Sexual reproduction allows natural selection to eliminate deleterious mutations from the population over time and may be especially valuable as a defense against pathogens and parasites.