Answer: A change in allele frequencies caused by random events
Explanation :<u>Genetic drift refers to a process which occur due to sampling error from preceding generations that lead to a change in allele frequency by chance alone within a population.</u> It is a random process which leads to large significant changes within a population over a short period of time. The rapid changes are due to increasing inbreeding coefficient s and homozygosity from the removal of alleles.
It is peculiar to a population which is synonymous with regular cycle of extinction and recolonization. Therefore, together with evolution, mutation and migration, <u>it is one of the driving mechanism of EVOLUTION.</u>
It is caused by;
Static or recurring small population sizes,
"Bottlenecks” form of population, that is drastic reduction in population size;
Repopulation from a small number of individual-FOUNDER EVENTS.
<u>Measurements of Genetic Drift
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The magnitude of genetic drift within a population depends on the effective population size for the population.This is represented as Ne. It is a theoretical number use to quantify the number of genetically distinct individuals that contribute gametes
