The Virtual Lab
Introduction to the Virtual Lab
As the idea of this lesson is not to destroy your thumbs due to intense coin flipping, we developed an "automatic-coin-flipper", simulating the process of random allele transmission, as well as random mating of mosquitoes.
You run it by simply pressing the buttons "Next Generation" below. The allele frequency for both alleles is initially set to 0.5. On the the graph you will see how the frequency of kdr_mut changes from one generation to the other. The Population Diagram below shows you the individual genotypes of male and female mosquitoes, as well as how the couples are formed. After they reproduced, you see the progeny (which are - to simplify - always two, male and female).
Observe the fluctuations in allele frequencies over 10 generations.
Advance the simulation to the next generation by pressing the button "Next Generation". Repeat this for 10 generations. To save you some work we've displayed the frequency of kdr_mut to the right of each generation in the bottom diagram and plotted this frequency for each generation on a graph.
Does the allele frequency vary from generation to generation? Does it go up or down? If you repeat the experiment, do you get the same result? Why do you think this is?Virtual Mosquito Lab
Population Diagram
Graph of Allele Frequencies
As you can see, the alleles "drift", or fluctuate from generation to generation in a given population. This process is called genetic drift, which is completely random, and can therefore not be predicted. We will now see what can happen to alleles in a population after many more generations.