Panmixia

Panmixia (or panmixis) means uniform random fertilization.[1][2] A panmictic population is one where all potential parents may contribute equally to the gamete pool, and that these gametes are uniformly distributed within the gamete population (gamodeme). This assumes that there are no hybridising restrictions within the parental population: neither genetics, cytogenetics nor behavioural; and neither spatial nor temporal (see also Quantitative genetics for further discussion). Therefore, all gamete recombination (fertilization) is uniformly possible. Both the Wahlund effect and the Hardy Weinberg equilibrium assume that the overall population is panmictic.[3]

In genetics and heredity, random mating[4] usually implies the hybridising (mating) of individuals regardless of any spatial, physical, genetical, temporal or social preference. That is, the mating between two organisms is not influenced by any environmental, nor hereditary interaction. Hence, potential mates have an equal chance of being contributors to the fertilizing gamete pool. If there is no random sub-sampling of gametes involved in the fertilization cohort, panmixia has occurred. Such uniform random mating is distinct from lack of natural selection: in viability selection for instance, selection occurs before mating.

  1. ^ King C and Stanfield W.D. (1997). Dictionary of genetics. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780195143249. p. 262: "Panmixia (panmixis): random mating as contrasted with assortative mating."
  2. ^ Merriam-Webster Medical Dictionary. "Panmixia: Random mating within a breeding population."
  3. ^ Gayon, Jean; Cobb, Matthew (1998), Darwinism's Struggle for Survival: Heredity and the Hypothesis of Natural Selection, Cambridge University Press, p. 158, ISBN 978-0-521-56250-8
  4. ^ Choudhuri, Supratim (2014-05-09). Bioinformatics for Beginners: Genes, Genomes, Molecular Evolution, Databases and Analytical Tools. Elsevier. ISBN 978-0-12-410510-2.