population genetics (redirected from Statistical genetics)

population genetics [‚päp·yə′lā·shən jə′ned·iks]

(genetics)

The study of both experimental and theoretical consequences of Mendelian heredity on the population level; includes studies of gene frequencies, genotypes, phenotypes, mating systems, selection, and migration.

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Population genetics

The study of both experimental and theoretical consequences of mendelian heredity on the population level, in contradistinction to classical genetics which deals with the offspring of specified parents on the familial level. The genetics of populations studies the frequencies of genes, genotypes, and phenotypes, and the mating systems. It also studies the forces that may alter the genetic composition of a population in time, such as recurrent mutation, migration, and intermixture between groups, selection resulting from genotypic differential fertility, and the random changes incurred by the sampling process in reproduction from generation to generation. This type of study contributes to an understanding of the elementary step in biological evolution. The principles of population genetics may be applied to plants and to other animals as well as humans. See Genetics, Mendelism