Gene pool

The gene pool is the set of all genes, or genetic information, in any population, usually of a particular species.

A large gene pool indicates extensive genetic diversity, which is associated with robust populations that can survive bouts of intense selection. Meanwhile, low genetic diversity (see inbreeding and population bottlenecks) can cause reduced biological fitness and an increased chance of extinction, although as explained by genetic drift new genetic variants, that may cause an increase in the fitness of organisms, are more likely to fix in the population if it is rather small.

When all individuals in a population are identical with regard to a particular phenotypic trait, the population is said to be monomorphic. When the individuals show several variants of a particular trait they are said to be polymorphic.

The Russian geneticist Aleksandr Sergeevich Serebrovskii first formulated the concept in the 1920s as genofond (gene fund), a word that was imported to the United States from the Soviet Union by Theodosius Dobzhansky, who translated it into English as “gene pool.”

Harlan and de Wet (1971) proposed classifying each crop and its related species by gene pools rather than by formal taxonomy.

Gene pool centres refers to areas on the earth where important crop plants and domestic animals originated. They have an extraordinary range of the wild counterparts of cultivated plant species and useful tropical plants. Gene pool centres also contain different sub tropical and temperate region species.

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