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Natural selection acts on an organism's phenotype, or physical characteristics. Phenotype is determined by an organism's genetic make-up (genotype) and the environment in which the organism lives. When different organisms in a population possess different versions of a gene for a certain trait, each of these versions is known as an allele. It ...
Evolution is a change in the frequency of alleles in a population over time. Mutations occur at random and in the Darwinian evolution model natural selection acts on the genetic variation in a population that has arisen through this mutation. [2] These mutations can be beneficial or deleterious and are selected for or against based on that factor.
When point mutations to just one base-pair of the DNA fall within a region coding for a protein, they are characterized by whether they are synonymous (do not change the amino acid sequence) or non-synonymous. Other types of mutations modify larger segments of DNA and can cause duplications, insertions, deletions, inversions, and translocations ...
Nearly neutral mutations are those that carry selection coefficients less than the inverse of twice the effective population size. [30] The population dynamics of nearly neutral mutations are only slightly different from those of neutral mutations unless the absolute magnitude of the selection coefficient is greater than 1/N, where N is the ...
The outcome of evolution is not a perfectly designed organism. The end products of natural selection are organisms that are adapted to their present environments. Natural selection does not involve progress towards an ultimate goal. Evolution does not strive for more advanced, more intelligent, or more sophisticated life forms. [25]
Evolution is the change in the heritable characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. [1] [2] It occurs when evolutionary processes such as natural selection and genetic drift act on genetic variation, resulting in certain characteristics becoming more or less common within a population over successive generations. [3]
Natural selection – Mechanism of evolution by differential survival and reproduction of individuals Sexual selection – Mode of natural selection involving the choosing of and competition for mates; Mutation – Alteration in the nucleotide sequence of a genome; Gene flow – Transfer of genetic variation from one population to another
The mechanisms of evolution focus mainly on mutation, genetic drift, gene flow, non-random mating, and natural selection. Mutation: Mutation [12] is a change in the DNA sequence inside a gene or a chromosome of an organism. Most mutations are deleterious, or neutral; i.e. they can neither harm nor benefit, but can also be beneficial sometimes.