Title: genetic drift
Long Title: IUPAC Gold Book - genetic drift
DOI: 10.1351/goldbook.14712
Status: current

Definition
Evolutionary process of change in the allele frequencies in a population due to random changes in the frequency by which different alleles are transferred to the next generation.

Note
In small populations, genetic drift may result in extinction of some alleles leading to evolutionary change over time.

Related Term
- population: https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/14932

Source
- PAC, 2009, 81, 829. 'Glossary of terms used in ecotoxicology (IUPAC Recommendations 2009)' on page 890 (https://doi.org/10.1351/PAC-REC-08-07-09)

Other Outputs
- html: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/14712/html
- json: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/14712/json
- xml: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/14712/xml

Citation: Citation: 'genetic drift' in IUPAC Compendium of Chemical Terminology, 5th ed. International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry; 2025. Online version 5.0.0, 2025. 10.1351/goldbook.14712
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Accessed: 2026-04-27T17:44:21+00:00