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Allele frequency

Allele frequency is a measure of the relative frequency of an allele on a genetic locus in a population.

Usually it is expressed as a proportion or a percentage.

In population genetics, allele frequencies show the genetic diversity of a species population or equivalently the richness of its gene pool.

The frequencies of all the alleles of a given gene often are graphed together as an allele frequency distribution histogram.

Population genetics studies the different "forces" that might lead to changes in the distribution and frequencies of alleles - in other words, to evolution.

Besides selection, these forces include genetic drift, mutation and migration..

For more information about the topic Allele frequency, read the full article at Wikipedia.org, or see the following related articles:

Note: This page refers to an article that is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the article Allele frequency at Wikipedia.org. See the Wikipedia copyright page for more details.

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