← All Labs

Genetic Drift & Founder Effect

Watch allele frequencies wander under random drift — bottleneck and founder effects in small populations

Wright-Fisher model: each generation, N alleles are drawn randomly from the previous generation. With small N, random sampling causes allele frequencies to wander — eventually fixing (p=1) or going extinct (p=0). The founder effect occurs when a small group colonizes a new habitat, carrying only a fraction of the original genetic diversity.