Re: 2nd law clarifications

On 03/01/2025 13:08, MarkE wrote:

 Wrong. Near-neutral (i.e. mildly detrimental changes) by definition have a very low selection co-efficient and therefore typically will not be removed by selection.

As an allele approaches a selection coefficient of zero the chance of fixation (and therefore also elimination) approaches 50%. The chance of a mildly detrimental change being removed (by the combination of drift and selection) remains greater than 0.5.
If you want to consider genetic drift acting alone, you have to not only eliminate natural selection, but also mutation and other sources of variation. In this case a population will evolve to eliminate genetic variation and then enter stasis.
--
alias Ernest Major