Lab 15: Population Genetics - eScience Labs

Lab 15: Population Genetics
Questions
1. What observations can you make regarding the gene pool and gene frequency of the founding
individuals?
2. Do these results vary between the populations founded by beakers #1, #2 and #3? Why or
why not?
3. What observations can you make about the genetic variation between the parent and founding
populations?
Experiment 4: Mutations
Many stochastic events change both the gene pool and gene frequencies over time. These parameters
can also change as a result of mutation and natural selection. Mutations are a change in the sequence
of DNA. Most mutations do not change the phenotype and confer no advantages or disadvantages to
the individual. Each of us has hundreds and probably thousands of mutations that do not affect our
fitness.
To answer the assessments for this exercise, assume the following:
There are approximately 3,000,000,000 base pairs in the mammalian genome (genes constitute
only a small portion of this total).
There are approximately 10,000 genes in the mammalian genome.
A single gene averages 10,000 base pairs in size.
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