Jove
Visualize
Contact Us
JoVE
x logofacebook logolinkedin logoyoutube logo
ABOUT JoVE
OverviewLeadershipBlogJoVE Help Center
AUTHORS
Publishing ProcessEditorial BoardScope & PoliciesPeer ReviewFAQSubmit
LIBRARIANS
TestimonialsSubscriptionsAccessResourcesLibrary Advisory BoardFAQ
RESEARCH
JoVE JournalMethods CollectionsJoVE Encyclopedia of ExperimentsArchive
EDUCATION
JoVE CoreJoVE BusinessJoVE Science EducationJoVE Lab ManualFaculty Resource CenterFaculty Site
Terms & Conditions of Use
Privacy Policy
Policies

Related Concept Videos

Mutation, Gene Flow, and Genetic Drift01:09

Mutation, Gene Flow, and Genetic Drift

59.4K
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).
59.4K
Conservation of Small Populations02:04

Conservation of Small Populations

13.5K
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...
13.5K
Genetic Drift03:33

Genetic Drift

40.7K
Natural selection—probably the most well-known evolutionary mechanism—increases the prevalence of traits that enhance survival and reproduction. However, evolution does not merely propagate favorable traits, nor does it always benefit populations.
40.7K
Conservation of Declining Populations02:07

Conservation of Declining Populations

9.7K
Conservation of declining population focuses on ways of detecting, diagnosing, and halting a population decline. The approach uses methods to prevent populations from going extinct.
9.7K
Stratified Sampling Method01:16

Stratified Sampling Method

12.8K
Sampling is a technique to select a portion (or subset) of the larger population and study that portion (the sample) to gain information about the population. The sampling method ensures that samples are drawn without bias and accurately represent the population. Because measuring the entire population in a study is not practical, researchers use samples to represent the population of interest.
To choose a stratified sample, divide the population into groups called strata and then take a...
12.8K
Hardy-Weinberg Principle01:49

Hardy-Weinberg Principle

72.9K
Diploid organisms have two alleles of each gene, one from each parent, in their somatic cells. Therefore, each individual contributes two alleles to the gene pool of the population. The gene pool of a population is the sum of every allele of all genes within that population and has some degree of variation. Genetic variation is typically expressed as a relative frequency, which is the percentage of the total population that has a given allele, genotype or phenotype.
72.9K

You might also read

Related Articles

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

Sort by
Same author

Large language models exhibit speciesist bias against animals.

Nature communications·2026
Same author

Age distinguishes selection from causation in cancer genomes.

Nature genetics·2026
Same author

The effect of the fitness gradient on fixation probability.

Nature communications·2026
Same author

Payoff equivalence and complete strategy spaces of direct reciprocity.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·2026
Same author

Promoters of cooperation in evolutionary games.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·2025
Same author

Time-Dependent Strategies in Repeated Asymmetric Public Goods Games.

Dynamic games and applications·2025
Same journal

Confident judgments of (mis)information veracity are more, rather than less, accurate.

PNAS nexus·2026
Same journal

Can AI help reduce prejudice? Evaluating the effectiveness of AI-powered personalized persuasion on support for transgender rights.

PNAS nexus·2026
Same journal

A cultural explanation for parole decisions in the United States.

PNAS nexus·2026
Same journal

A transformer-based language model reveals developmental constraint and network complexity during zebrafish embryogenesis.

PNAS nexus·2026
Same journal

Dual phosphoregulatory mechanisms of condensin I revealed by biochemical reconstitution.

PNAS nexus·2026
Same journal

Vanin-1 deficiency enhances host tolerance to influenza infection by modulating cellular redox status.

PNAS nexus·2026
See all related articles

Related Experiment Video

Updated: Sep 10, 2025

Following the Dynamics of Structural Variants in Experimentally Evolved Populations
04:52

Following the Dynamics of Structural Variants in Experimentally Evolved Populations

Published on: February 3, 2023

1.0K

Maintaining diversity in structured populations.

David A Brewster1,2, Jakub Svoboda3, Dylan Roscow4

  • 1John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University, Boston, MA 02134, USA.

PNAS Nexus
|August 21, 2025
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Population structures significantly impact diversity maintenance in neutral evolution. Evolutionary graph theory reveals that graph structure, not just homogenization speed, dictates how long diversity persists.

Keywords:
diversityevolutionary dynamicsgraphsmoran processrandom walk

More Related Videos

Heuristic Mining of Hierarchical Genotypes and Accessory Genome Loci in Bacterial Populations
08:03

Heuristic Mining of Hierarchical Genotypes and Accessory Genome Loci in Bacterial Populations

Published on: December 7, 2021

2.3K
Monitoring Spatial Segregation in Surface Colonizing Microbial Populations
07:40

Monitoring Spatial Segregation in Surface Colonizing Microbial Populations

Published on: October 29, 2016

11.2K

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: Sep 10, 2025

Following the Dynamics of Structural Variants in Experimentally Evolved Populations
04:52

Following the Dynamics of Structural Variants in Experimentally Evolved Populations

Published on: February 3, 2023

1.0K
Heuristic Mining of Hierarchical Genotypes and Accessory Genome Loci in Bacterial Populations
08:03

Heuristic Mining of Hierarchical Genotypes and Accessory Genome Loci in Bacterial Populations

Published on: December 7, 2021

2.3K
Monitoring Spatial Segregation in Surface Colonizing Microbial Populations
07:40

Monitoring Spatial Segregation in Surface Colonizing Microbial Populations

Published on: October 29, 2016

11.2K

Area of Science:

  • Evolutionary Biology
  • Theoretical Ecology
  • Population Genetics

Background:

  • Understanding how population structures influence the maintenance of genetic diversity is crucial for evolutionary dynamics.
  • Neutral evolution models provide a framework to study diversity without selection pressures.
  • The time to reach a single type (consensus time) is a key metric for diversity loss.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the relationship between population structures and diversity maintenance under neutral evolution.
  • To determine how different graph structures affect the time it takes for one type to dominate a population.
  • To compare diversity maintenance across various population structures and updating rules.

Main Methods:

  • Utilizing the framework of evolutionary graph theory.
  • Analyzing birth-death (bd) and death-birth (db) updating processes.
  • Calculating consensus/total coalescent times for different graph topologies (complete, cycle, star, double star).

Main Results:

  • Consensus time scales vary significantly with graph structure: quadratic for complete graphs, cubic for cycles, and ranging from quasilinear to quartic for stars and double stars.
  • Derived general upper and lower bounds for consensus times on undirected graphs for both bd and db dynamics.
  • Identified Pareto fronts of graphs that maximize diversity maintenance time for a given population size.
  • Demonstrated that some rapidly homogenizing graphs can maintain diversity longer than slowly homogenizing ones.
  • Discovered superexponential time scales for diversity maintenance in directed graphs using contracting star-like structures.

Conclusions:

  • Population structure is a critical determinant of diversity maintenance duration in neutral evolution.
  • The interplay between graph topology and updating rules (bd/db) dictates evolutionary outcomes.
  • Specific graph structures, even those that homogenize quickly, can paradoxically prolong diversity maintenance.