Equation
The General Selection Model is encapsulated by the equation:
- where:
-
- is the frequency of the dominant gene
- is the frequency of the recessive gene
- is the rate of evolutionary change of the frequency of the recessive gene
- are the relative fitnesses of homozygous dominant, heterozygous, and homozygous recessive genotypes respectively.
- is the mean population relative fitness.
In words:
The product of the relative frequencies, is a measure of the genetic variance. The quantity pq is maximized when there is an equal frequency of each gene, when . In the GSM, the rate of change is proportional to the genetic variation.
The mean population fitness is a measure of the overall fitness of the population. In the GSM, the rate of change is inversely proportional to the mean fitness -- i.e. when the population is maximally fit, no further change can occur.
The remainder of the equation, refers to the mean effect of an allele substitution. In essence, this term quantifies what effect genetic changes will have on fitness.
Read more about this topic: General Selection Model
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