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In biology, polymorphism [1] is the occurrence of two or more clearly different morphs or forms, also referred to as alternative phenotypes, in the population of a species. To be classified as such, morphs must occupy the same habitat at the same time and belong to a panmictic population (one with random mating).
In 1973, M. J. D. White, then at the end of a long career investigating karyotypes, gave an interesting summary of the distribution of chromosome polymorphism. "It is extremely difficult to get an adequate idea as to what fraction of the species of eukaryote organisms actually are polymorphic for structural rearrangements of the chromosomes.
It operates on polymorphic species, species which have different forms. In apostatic selection, the common forms of a species are preyed on more than the rarer forms, giving the rare forms a selective advantage in the population. [1] It has also been discussed that apostatic selection acts to stabilize prey polymorphisms.
For example, crocodiles possess a temperature-dependent sex determining polyphenism, where sex is the trait influenced by variations in nest temperature. [ 3 ] When polyphenic forms exist at the same time in the same panmictic (interbreeding) population they can be compared to genetic polymorphism . [ 4 ]
The McDonald–Kreitman test [1] is a statistical test often used by evolutionary and population biologists to detect and measure the amount of adaptive evolution within a species by determining whether adaptive evolution has occurred, and the proportion of substitutions that resulted from positive selection (also known as directional selection).
This condition has been detected in many species. Trichomycterus davisi, for example, is an extreme case where the polymorphism was present within a single chimeric individual. [1] It has also been studied in alfalfa, [2] shrews, [3] Brazilian rodents, [4] and an enormous variety of other animals and plants. [5] In one instance it has been ...
Genetic polymorphism and natural selection give rise to otherwise edible species (the mimic) gaining a survival advantage by resembling inedible species (the model). Such a mimicry complex is referred to as Batesian and is most commonly known by the mimicry by the limenitidine viceroy butterfly of the inedible danaine monarch. Later research ...
Incomplete lineage sorting (ILS) [1] [2] [3] (also referred to as hemiplasy, deep coalescence, retention of ancestral polymorphism, or trans-species polymorphism) is a phenomenon in evolutionary biology and population genetics that results in discordance between species and gene trees.