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In a population that is not at Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium, the frequency of alleles changes over time. Therefore, any deviations from the five conditions of Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium can alter the genetic variation of a given population. Conditions that change the genetic variability of a population include mutations, natural selection, non-random mating, gene flow, and genetic drift (small population size).
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Following the Dynamics of Structural Variants in Experimentally Evolved Populations
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EVOLUTION AND EXTINCTION IN A CHANGING ENVIRONMENT: A QUANTITATIVE-GENETIC ANALYSIS.

Reinhard Bürger1, Michael Lynch2

  • 1Institut für Mathematik, Universität Wien, Strudlhofgasse 4, A-1090, Wien, Austria.

Evolution; International Journal of Organic Evolution
|June 9, 2017
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Populations can evolve to meet environmental challenges, but rapid environmental change and genetic factors can increase extinction risk. Understanding these evolutionary dynamics is crucial for predicting species survival.

Keywords:
Demographic stochasticityenvironmental changeextinctiongenetic stochasticitymutationquantitative geneticsselection

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Area of Science:

  • Evolutionary biology
  • Population genetics
  • Ecology

Background:

  • Genetic variation enables evolutionary adaptation to selective pressures.
  • Natural selection can impose demographic costs, increasing extinction risk.
  • Environmental change presents challenges to population persistence.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate how environmental pressures, population parameters, and genetic factors influence the mean time to extinction.
  • To model the evolutionary dynamics of quantitative traits under changing environments.
  • To understand the role of genetic variance and population size in extinction vulnerability.

Main Methods:

  • Mathematical modeling of a finite, randomly mating population.
  • Analysis of quantitative-genetic character under Gaussian stabilizing selection with directional or fluctuating optima.
  • Investigation of mutation-selection-drift balance and stochastic effects on genetic variance.

Main Results:

  • Phenotypic lag behind the optimum determines extinction vulnerability in changing environments.
  • Stochastic fluctuations in genetic variance can impair adaptive capacity, leading to extinction.
  • Maximum sustainable rates of evolution are limited, with critical environmental change rates below 10% of a phenotypic standard deviation per generation.

Conclusions:

  • Population extinction risk is influenced by the interplay of environmental change, population size, and genetic architecture.
  • Finite population effects, particularly genetic variance bottlenecks, significantly impact adaptive capacity and survival.
  • Understanding these limits is essential for predicting evolutionary rescue and extinction probabilities.