What is a "gene pool?" What term describes the changes, over time, in allelic frequencies within the gene pool of a population that result in the change, over time, of the genetic makeup of the population?
While the genotype represents the genetic constitution of an individual, the gene pool represents the genetic constitution of an entire population, being composed of the genes of all the individuals in a population. While the genotype of an individual can have only two alleles for each type of gene, a gene pool of a population can contain many different alleles of the same gene. The allelic frequencies of each gene define the gene pool with regard to any given gene. Changes, over time, in allelic frequencies within the gene pool of a population result in the change, over time, of the genetic makeup of the population: This change is known as evolution.
