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Limits to Natural Selection

Limits to Natural Selection

Organisms that are well-adapted to their environment are more likely to survive and reproduce. However, natural selection does not lead to perfectly adapted organisms. Several factors constrain natural selection.For one, natural selection can only act upon existing genetic variation. Hypothetically, redtusks may enhance elephant survival by deterring ivory-seeking poachers. However, if there are no gene variants—or alleles—for redtusks, natural selection cannot increase the prevalence of...

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Updated: Jul 9, 2026

An Allele-specific Gene Expression Assay to Test the Functional Basis of Genetic Associations

An Allele-specific Gene Expression Assay to Test the Functional Basis of Genetic Associations

Published on: November 3, 2010

Existing methods are effective at measuring natural selection on gene expression

Hunter B Fraser¹

¹Department of Biology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA. hbfraser@stanford.edu.

Nature Ecology & Evolution

|November 7, 2022

Summary

No abstract available in PubMed .

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