> To: molecular-evolution at net.bio.net> From: josh at pogo.cqs.washington.edu (Josh Hayes)
> Subject: Re: Book Review - Genetics, Speciation and the Founder Principle
> Date: 1 Sep 93 16:35:33 GMT
> I'll take a stab at defining "founder effect".
>> New populations are often "founded" by a very small initial
> population. Consequently, the genetic variation within the
> new population depends strongly on the genetic variation present
> in the founding individuals - and this may be substantially
> different from the characteristic variation in the source
> population.
>> The upshot is, new populations that are reproductively
> isolated from source populations (i.e. no gene flow) can
> rapidly diverge from that source population.
Would the founder effect be a major cause of the great diversity
of human laguages and cultures in where people have been isolated
into small groups like Papua or Australia and the Americas before
the comming of Europeans?
Stephen A. Pluhar
SPLUHAR at CROP.UOGUELPH.CA Dept. Crop Science U. of Guelph
Phone: 519-824-4120 Ext. 4865 Guelph, Ontario, Canada. N1G 2W1
