AP BIOLOGY

Detailed explanation-1: -Unlike natural selection, genetic drift does not depend on an allele’s beneficial or harmful effects. Instead, drift changes allele frequencies purely by chance, as random subsets of individuals (and the gametes of those individuals) are sampled to produce the next generation.

Detailed explanation-2: -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-3: -Genetic drift describes random fluctuations in the numbers of gene variants in a population. Genetic drift takes place when the occurrence of variant forms of a gene, called alleles, increases and decreases by chance over time.

Detailed explanation-4: -Genetic drift affects the genetic makeup of the population, but unlike natural selection, through an entirely random process. So although genetic drift is a mechanism of evolution, it doesn’t work to produce adaptations.

Detailed explanation-5: -when natural selection cannot or is not occurring. “[Genetic drift is] the genetic changes that occur when a population is not under selection.” random mutation. “[Genetic drift occurs when] due to random mutations, genetic structure can change over time.”