4.4 Genetic diversity and adaptation

• Genetic diversity - The number of different alleles of genes in a populatiom
• Species - A group of similar organisms that can successfully breed together to produce fertile offspring
• Population - A group of individuals of the same species in a particular habitat
• The greater the number of alleles in a population, the greater the genetic diversity

  • This is an advantage because this means that the population has a greater chance of surviving an environmental change
  • This is because of a wider range of alleles and therefore wider range of characteristics - greater probability that some individual will possess a characteristic that suits it to the new environmental conditions
• Genetic diversity is a factor that enables natural selection to occur