Question

Coin tosses can demonstrate the effects of genetic drift. Imagine that heads and tails are two alleles in a population. Consider each coin toss to represent a member of the population. What describes the effect that you see here?

Answer 1

Answer:

Smaller populations have a greater chance of having one allele expressed disproportionately.

Explanation:

Genetic drift corresponds to a drastic casual alteration of the natural order, reaching the genotypic concentration of one or several species, not preliminarily involving natural selection factors, but caused by sudden events.  Such phenomenon is characterized by the occurrence of ecological catastrophes, for example: earthquakes, tsunamis, tornadoes, floods, burnings, avalanches and other processes, affecting a large population contingent. Thus limiting the genetic content of a particular group, restricted to the prevailing individuals.

In this situation, with low variability, differentiated individuals will experience a more significant selection pressure in relation to the ascending lineage, which minimized the achievements of selection due to the high number of living individuals. In this scenario, smaller populations will have a greater chance of having a disproportionately expressed allele as the number of members is reduced. We can also see this effect if by using a coin we imagine that heads and tails are two alleles in a population and each coin toss represents one member of that population.