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EVOLUTION AS A PROCESS
- EVOLUTION: The process of descent with modification at the level of a biological
population
- DESCENT: The cumulative transmission of genetic information across generations
- MODIFICATION: The alteration in the composition of the set of genetic information
that is passed across generations
- POPULATION: A collection of interbreeding organisms
THE STATISTICAL NATURE OF THE PROCESS OF EVOLUTION
- Genetic information is NOT uniform. It is a set that consists of the frequency distribution of segregating alleles and their arrangement into genotypes.
- Changes in this set (the results of the "modification") are made through alterations in one or more of:
- relative frequency of segregating elements
- arrangement of segregating elements into genotypes
- pattern of use and disuse of particular genes
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