AP BIOLOGY

Detailed explanation-1: -Genetic drift is the change in frequency of an existing gene variant in the population due to random chance. Genetic drift may cause gene variants to disappear completely and thereby reduce genetic variation. It could also cause initially rare alleles to become much more frequent, and even fixed.

Detailed explanation-2: -Genetic drift can result in the loss of rare alleles, and can decrease the size of the gene pool. Genetic drift can also cause a new population to be genetically distinct from its original population, which has led to the hypothesis that genetic drift plays a role in the evolution of new species.

Detailed explanation-3: -Allele frequencies appear to change randomly as if the frequencies were drifting, thus a random loss or change in frequencies of alleles in a small population is Genetic drift.

Detailed explanation-4: -Which statement about genetic drift is correct? ANSWER: Genetic drift becomes increasingly important with increasing population size. The direction of evolutionary change due to genetic drift is random.

Detailed explanation-5: -Explanation: Genetic drift occurs as a result of chance events causing changes in the allele frequency of a population. It doesn’t favor the most fit individuals, but occurs at random. Mutations can contribute to genetic drift, however, genetic drift is a more specific answer and more relevant to the question at hand.