Search research articles

ABOUT JoVE

Overview Leadership Blog JoVE Help Center

AUTHORS

Publishing Process Editorial Board Scope & Policies Peer Review FAQ Submit

LIBRARIANS

Testimonials Subscriptions Access Resources Library Advisory Board FAQ

RESEARCH

JoVE Journal Methods Collections JoVE Encyclopedia of Experiments Archive

EDUCATION

JoVE Core JoVE Business JoVE Science Education JoVE Lab Manual Faculty Resource Center Faculty Site

Terms & Conditions of Use

Related Concept Videos

What is Population Genetics?

What is Population Genetics?

A population is composed of members of the same species that simultaneously live and interact in the same area. When individuals in a population breed, they pass down their genes to their offspring. Many of these genes are polymorphic, meaning that they occur in multiple variants. Such variations of a gene are referred to as alleles. The collective set of all the alleles within a population is known as the gene pool.

Conservation of Small Populations

Conservation of Small Populations

Small population sizes put a species at extreme risk of extinction due to a lack of variation, and a consequent decrease in adaptability. This weakens the chances of survival under pressures such as climate change, competition from other species, or new diseases. Large populations are more likely to survive pressures such as these, as such populations are more likely to harbor individuals that have genetic variants that are adaptive under new stresses. Small populations are much less...

Genetics of Speciation

Genetics of Speciation

Speciation is the evolutionary process resulting in the formation of new, distinct species—groups of reproductively isolated populations.

Genome-wide Association Studies-GWAS

Genome-wide Association Studies-GWAS

Genome-wide association studies or GWAS are used to identify whether common SNPs are associated with certain diseases. Suppose specific SNPs are more frequently observed in individuals with a particular disease than those without the disease. In that case, those SNPs are said to be associated with the disease. Chi-square analysis is performed to check the probability of the allele likely to be associated with the disease.
GWAS does not require the identification of the target gene involved in...

Population Growth

Population Growth

Population size is dynamic, increasing with birth rates and immigration, and decreasing with death rates and emigration. In ideal conditions with unlimited resources, populations can increase exponentially, which plots as a J-shaped growth rate curve of population size against time. This type of curve is characteristic of newly-introduced invasive species, or populations that have suffered catastrophic declines and are rebounding.

What are Populations and Communities?

What are Populations and Communities?

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by

Same author

<i>Trans</i>-eQTLs reveal the architecture of human gene regulatory networks.

medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences·2026

Same author

Beyond Mendel: a call to revisit the genotype-phenotype map through new experimental paradigms.

Genetics·2026

Same author

snATAC-Express infers Gene Expression from Prioritized Chromatin Accessibility Peaks using Machine Learning.

bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology·2025

Same author

Genetically Transitional Disease and the Road to Personalized Medicine.

Genes·2025

Same author

Haplotype rather than single causal variants effects contribute to regulatory gene expression associations in human myeloid cells.

bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology·2025

Same author

Eleven Grand Challenges for Inflammatory Bowel Disease Genetics and Genomics.

Inflammatory bowel diseases·2024

Same journal

A developmental shift in glucocorticoid receptor expression preserves glucocorticoid sensitivity in the adult suprachiasmatic nucleus.

PLoS biology·2026

Same journal

Sequential neural dynamics underlie unconscious integration and conscious perception of visual stimuli.

PLoS biology·2026

Same journal

Engineering resilient gene drives for sustainable malaria control by predicting, testing and overcoming target site resistance in Anopheles gambiae.

PLoS biology·2026

Same journal

Shared memories of event details in the human brain are altered by misinformation and test expectations.

PLoS biology·2026

Same journal

Resistance potentiators: Evolutionary catalysts of antibiotic resistance.

PLoS biology·2026

Same journal

The cell cloud: Adopting systems biology concepts in the era of single-cell immunology.

PLoS biology·2026

See all related articles

Search research articles

Related Experiment Video

Updated: Feb 13, 2026

Laboratory Protocol for Genetic Gut Content Analyses of Aquatic Macroinvertebrates Using Group-specific rDNA Primers

Laboratory Protocol for Genetic Gut Content Analyses of Aquatic Macroinvertebrates Using Group-specific rDNA Primers

Published on: October 5, 2017

Population genetics and GWAS: A primer.

¹School of Biological Sciences, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia, United States of America.

|March 17, 2018

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

This study explains how many small genetic changes combine to influence complex traits. It offers background for non-specialists on evolutionary genetics theory.

More Related Videos

Digital-Droplet PCR to Detect Indels Mutations in Genetically Modified Anopheline Mosquito Populations

Digital-Droplet PCR to Detect Indels Mutations in Genetically Modified Anopheline Mosquito Populations

Published on: June 28, 2021

Population Replacement Strategies for Controlling Vector Populations and the Use of Wolbachia pipientis for Genetic Drive

Population Replacement Strategies for Controlling Vector Populations and the Use of Wolbachia pipientis for Genetic Drive

Published on: July 4, 2007

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: Feb 13, 2026

Laboratory Protocol for Genetic Gut Content Analyses of Aquatic Macroinvertebrates Using Group-specific rDNA Primers

Laboratory Protocol for Genetic Gut Content Analyses of Aquatic Macroinvertebrates Using Group-specific rDNA Primers

Published on: October 5, 2017

Digital-Droplet PCR to Detect Indels Mutations in Genetically Modified Anopheline Mosquito Populations

Digital-Droplet PCR to Detect Indels Mutations in Genetically Modified Anopheline Mosquito Populations

Published on: June 28, 2021

Population Replacement Strategies for Controlling Vector Populations and the Use of Wolbachia pipientis for Genetic Drive

Population Replacement Strategies for Controlling Vector Populations and the Use of Wolbachia pipientis for Genetic Drive

Published on: July 4, 2007

Area of Science:

Evolutionary genetics
Quantitative genetics

Background:

Complex traits are influenced by numerous genetic variants.
Understanding the genetic architecture of complex traits is a key challenge in biology.

Purpose of the Study:

To provide background for a new theoretical evolutionary genetics study.
To explain the contribution of small-effect variants to complex traits.

Main Methods:

Theoretical modeling in evolutionary genetics.
Review of existing literature on quantitative genetics.

Main Results:

The study presents a theoretical framework explaining the accumulation of small-effect variants.
This framework helps reconcile theoretical expectations with empirical observations of genetic architecture.

Conclusions:

A large number of variants with small effects can collectively shape complex traits.
The theoretical model provides insights into the evolutionary processes underlying genetic variation for complex traits.