Genetic drift lab exercise :
to be handed in on Tuesday, the 16th!

Use the Java Genetic Drift applet
to answer these questions: 

Using 24 experiments for each population size (from 10 to 250), and plot the frequency of allele loss as a function of population size after 100 generations. 

• To do this you will need to determine the number of times that one or the other allele is lost for each 100 generations.   Call that number L, and the frequency of allele loss f_L.   Then f_L = L/24.   
• Based on your data make a prediction of what your graph would look like after 250 generations. 
• Now do the 250 generation experiment, how close did you come?

Q1: How does increasing population size influence f_L? Is there a population size at which random allele loss does not occur?  

Q2: What effect does random allele loss have on subsequent evolution by natural selection? 

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