Genetic Drift Frootloopitus cerealis Lab

Assigned Tuesday December 2, 2014 IN class
DUE Friday December 5, 2014

LT: I can determine the effect of Genetic Drift on populations.

Name: ______________________ Date: ___________________ Class Period: ________________

Background Info: Genetic drift is a change in DNA frequency in a population due to a random event.  The change in DNA has nothing to do with an organism’s fitness, only its luck.  Complete the following lab to determine if genetic drift has more of an effect on a small or a large population by using the species Frootloopitus cerealis.

Hypothesis: If the fruitloopitus population is small, then genetic drift will have more/less of an effect

because _____________________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________

Materials: cup or bag, 100 fruitloopitus , pencil

Procedure:

1. Randomly count 100 fruitloopitus and put them in your bag or cup.  This is your original population.

2. Count and record in the data table the number of each color of Fruitloopitus. 

Original Population

Allele (Color) of Fruitloopitus	# of color	Total # in population	Percent of population

3. Put all 100 fruitloopitus back into the cup or bag.  FOUNDER EFFECT EVENT OCCURS. Your teacher will tell you what happens. Without looking, pick out 50 Fruitloopitus. 

4. Count and record in the date table the number of each color of the 50 Fruitloopitus.

New Population after Founder Effect

Allele (Color) of Fruitloopitus	# of color	Total # in population	Percent of population

5. A BOTTLENECK EVENT OCCURS TO THE FOUNDER    POPULATION. Your teacher will tell you what happens. Without looking, pick out 10 Fruitloopitus from the current population.

6. Count and record in the date table the number of each color of the 10 Fruitloopitus.

New Population after Bottleneck Event

Allele (Color) of Fruitloopitus	# of color	Total # in population	Percent of population

7. Put the Fruitloopitus back in the bag and clean up your area.

Analysis Questions:

1. In your own words, explain what genetic drift is.

2. Looking at your data, does genetic drift have more of an affect on large or small populations? 

3. Based on your experiment, what does genetic drift do to the diversity of a population?

4. If genetic drift occurred on a small population, predict the effect it could have on that

population’s survival?  Would the small population have a greater chance of survival than the

original population?  Explain.

5. How do you think genetic drift could lead to speciation? Explain the process in conjunction with natural selection.