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Directional Selection

Edexcel A-level BiologyGene PoolsLesson 14 of 16

Directional selection is natural selection that favours individuals with a phenotype at one extreme of the range.

It usually happens when the environment changes, so that a phenotype that used to be rare, or at the edge of the range, now gives an advantage. Individuals with this phenotype are more likely to survive and reproduce, so the alleles responsible increase in frequency and the alleles for the other extreme decrease.

Diagram

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