Chapter 18 - Introduction

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To fully appreciate this tutorial, you should be familiar with the concept of:
• Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium

After this tutorial, you will be able to describe:

• Microevolution

• The effects of a variety of factors on the evolutionary change of populations:

• Nonrandom mating
• Mutations
• Small population size
• Migration to and from other populations
• Natural selection

How do populations change genetically away from the Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium?

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Nonrandom mating
Mutations
Small population size
Migration
Natural selection
Summary

The Hardy-Weinberg principle states that under a very specific set of conditions, genetic change will not happen in populations. Thus, evolution would not occur. It is impossible to meet all of these conditions in nature, however, so evolution must result. In this tutorial, we will explore how a variety of factors initiate changes in allele frequencies (and therefore evolution) of natural populations.