1. Genetic Drift
M and M’s activity

2. Yellow = Bottleneck effect
Genetic Drift
Pink = Founder effect
What do we know?
Green = Genetic drift
Yellow = Bottleneck effect

3. Genetic Drift
Genetic drift is the random change in allele frequencies in small populations. It is strongly associated with population size. A change in allele frequency is known as ‘founder effect’. If the population undergoes a large scale population reduction (natural disaster), this is known as ‘bottle neck’.

4. Activity Collect a cup with 24 M&M’s and a paper towel.
In your cup are a population of Candus spectacularus. Each colour represents 1 allele found in the population. There are 6 alleles in your population.
Count your alleles of the initial population and fill in your table.

5. Activity
Allele frequency (%) = total number of allele x 100 total number of all alleles

6. Activity 1 – Founder Effect
Without looking (randomly), remove 6 M&M’s from the cup and place them on the paper towel. This is your founder group.
This population has left the original population to form a founder group. How has this affected your alleles in the original population?
2. Record your results in table 1 , using your formula for allele frequency.

7. Activity 2 – Bottleneck Effect
A hurricane hits your population of Candus spectacularus!
Without looking (randomly), remove 18 M&M’s.
Only three individuals remain, each having 2 alleles. Record the allele frequencies in table 2.