disruptive selection

views updated

disruptive selection Selection that changes the frequency of alleles in a divergent manner, leading to the fixation of alternative alleles in members of the population. The result after several generations of selection should be two divergent phenotypic extremes within the population; this process has been thought to provide a possible mechanism for sympatric speciation (see SYMPATRIC EVOLUTION). Compare DIRECTIONAL SELECTION; STABLILIZING SELECTION.

More From encyclopedia.com