In this simulation a partner and I used the program Evolve to find out the effects of various variables on the survival rate of both alleles and genotypes. The first variable we looked at was natural selection, or when one species has an advantage to the others. When we change the number of offspring produced by the homozygous diamond genotype the population increases in number dramatically. While the other genotypes slowly decrease in number, homozygous bullet even dies off, going extinct. The next simulation we had to run was on disease, we had to find out if Huntington's disease carriers should be prevented from having children. Huntington's is a homozygous dominant genotype, this means not only do the homozygous individuals have the disease but so do the heterozygous individuals. The disease kills the individual after some time but the individual has time to reproduce and have offspring, spreading the disease. So when the simulation is run the survival rate of carrier individuals is greatly reduced when compared to that of non-carriers. Also the reproductive rates are close to the same except the non-carrier has a little bit of an advantage. When the simulation is run the homozygous dominant genotype goes to extinction first, after about five generations. The heterozygous genotype gets near extinction but doesn't actually die off after about 13 generations. The reason for this is the offspring of the homozygous dominant have a good chance of having the disease. The allele for Huntington's disease also died off after six generations. This shows us what happens when individuals with Huntington's do reproduce. To show what happens when individuals with Huntington's are not allowed to reproduce. We set the reproductive rate of the carriers to zero. In this particular simulation the homozygous dominant died off after one generation and the heterozygous individuals dies off in seven generations. The allele for the diseas...
