Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Mutation
A mutation is the change in genetic material, which can give
rise to heritable variations in the offspring. In nature maybe exposure
to radiation will do this. In this case the result will be a mutation of the
plants genetic code and thus when it breeds with the same population
it is effectively a 'Migration' of foreign genetic material. Even though
nothing new has been added into the population from an outside
population, the mutation of one single plant will act just like another
strain that migrated into the gene pool.
Gene Migration
When we deal with a population of plants we refer to a group
of plants that breed within themselves without any interference from
an outside population. Over time a population will reach equilibrium
and this will be maintained as long as no other population migrates to
this one. When another population is introduced it will cause new
genes to enter the pool. This is called 'Introgression'. During the
process of introgression many new traits will pop up in the population.
Genetic Drift:
If the population is small equilibrium may be violated. By
chance alone certain members will be eliminated from the population.
We will find that the frequency of an allele will DRIFT towards higher
or lower values.
