BIOLOGY 1M03 Lecture Notes - Lecture 20: Birth Weight, Stabilizing Selection, Genetic Variation
Document Summary
Types of natural selection: occurs when individuals with certain phenotypes produce more offspring than individuals with other phenotypes do. Environmental change is severe enough, population may fact extinction. In chapter 24, according to data, natural selection ahs increased frequency of drug-resistant strains of the tb bacterium and caused changes in beak shape and body size in medium ground finches. If directional selection continues over time favored alleles will eventually approach a frequency of 1. 0, while disadvantageous alleles will approach a frequency of 0. In 1996, a population of cliff swallows native to north america endured a 6-day period of extreme cold and rainy weather: they feed by catching mosquitoes and other insects. If difference in body size among individuals were due to variation their genotypes. If directional selection of this type continued then the alleles that contribute to small body size would quickly decline in frequency. This is evidence that birth weight was under strong stabilizing selection in humans.