Genetic Biodiversity

• Genetic biodiversity is variation of alleles (different versions of genes) within a species; if genetic diversity is low, species is more susceptible to environmental changes (whole population could then be wiped out by a single event)
• Calculation

  Proportion of polymorphic gene loci = number of polymorphic gene loci/total number of loci
• Key Terms:

  • Polymorphism: Gene has more than one allele (e.g. Hair colour, eye colour and blood type)
  • Monomorphism: Gene has only one allele; most genes are ‘monomorphic’ to ensure species basic structure is similar
  • Locus: Where on the chromosome the alleles are located