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How is allele frequency altered if mating is assortative?

Can anyone give an example? Like is it about how attraction? Example female birds getting attracted to males that dancers better?

Reply 1

OxFossil

Original post by nanachan123

Can anyone give an example? Like is it about how attraction? Example female birds getting attracted to males that dancers better?

It means that individuals choose a mate based on a preference for a particular phenotype, rather than at random. The assumption is that the phenotype is a faithful representation of the genotype. So if you choose a mate with the same phenotype as yourself, you should end up increasing the frequency of the alleles that produce that phenotype. An theoretical example might be a tabby cat prefering to mate with another tabby cat rather than - say - a white one. Result = cats with the 'tabby' allele, fewer white ones.

You can also have negative assortative mating, where individuals prefer to mate with those with phenotypes unlike their own. That might have the effect of equalising allele frequencies.

It's worth pointing out that allele frequencies will change only if there is a correlation between that particular phenotype and genotype. Some phenotypes might not be genetically determined.