Meaning & use
gene drift
Last updated
Meaning
noununcountablebiology
A random change in how common a gene variant is within a population over generations, especially noticeable in small populations.
Grammar: Used without a: gene drift occurs in small groups.
Patterns
- gene drift in something
- gene drift within a population
Gene drift can remove a rare trait from a small island population by chance.
Because the group was tiny, gene drift changed the frequencies of several traits.
Unlike natural selection, gene drift does not favor useful traits.
Common combinations
- gene drift in small populations
- Gene drift in small populations can cause rapid change.
- effects of gene drift
- The effects of gene drift are stronger when few individuals survive.
- cause gene drift
- A population bottleneck can cause gene drift.
- random gene drift
- Random gene drift shaped the isolated colony.
- gene drift and selection
- Gene drift and selection both change populations.
Synonyms and how they differ
- genetic drift
- Genetic drift is the more common textbook name for the same process.
- allele drift
- Allele drift is a more specialist term that names the gene variants involved.
- random sampling effect
- This phrase describes the chance cause and is used when explaining the mechanism.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: gene drift or gene flow?
gene drift vs gene flow
Gene flow is the movement of genes between populations when individuals migrate and breed, while gene drift is a chance change in one population.
Practice
In a very small population, a random change in how common a trait is, with no link to survival, is an example of ____.
Choose one answer.
Gene drift is chance change in gene frequency. Natural selection depends on traits helping survival, and gene flow involves migration.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “gene drift”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.