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Fitness (often denoted or ω in population genetics models) is a quantitative representation of individual reproductive success. It is also equal to the average contribution to the gene pool of the next generation, made by the same individuals of the specified genotype or phenotype. Fitness can be defined either with respect to a genotype or to ...
Genetic load is the difference between the fitness of an average genotype in a population and the fitness of some reference genotype, which may be either the best present in a population, or may be the theoretically optimal genotype. The average individual taken from a population with a low genetic load will generally, when grown in the same ...
A fitness function is a particular type of objective function that is used to summarise, as a single figure of merit, how close a given design solution is to achieving the set aims. Fitness functions are used in software architecture and evolutionary algorithms (EA), such as genetic programming and genetic algorithms to guide simulations ...
Population genetics must either model this complexity in detail, or capture it by some simpler average rule. Empirically, beneficial mutations tend to have a smaller fitness benefit when added to a genetic background that already has high fitness: this is known as diminishing returns epistasis.
In a recent study published Jan. 24 in the PLOS Genetics journal, university researchers in the United Kingdom compared the DNA of 1,622 thin volunteers, 1,985 severely obese people, and a normal ...
Heterosis or hybrid vigor, on the other hand, is the tendency of outbred strains to exceed both inbred parents in fitness. Selective breeding of plants and animals, including hybridization, began long before there was an understanding of underlying scientific principles.
Cancer. There’s little doubt that genetic factors play a role in many cancers. Women who have a BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene mutation, or instance, have a 45%-72% chance of developing breast cancer in ...
Genetic variance is a concept outlined by the English biologist and statistician Ronald Fisher in his fundamental theorem of natural selection. In his 1930 book The Genetical Theory of Natural Selection, Fisher postulates that the rate of change of biological fitness can be calculated by the genetic variance of the fitness itself. [1]