In evolutionary genetics, mutational meltdown is a sub class of extinction vortex in which the environment and genetic predisposition mutually reinforce each other. Mutational meltdown (not to be confused with the concept of an error catastrophe) is the accumulation of harmful mutations in a small population, which leads to loss of fitness and decline of the population size, which may lead to further accumulation of deleterious mutations due to fixation by genetic drift.
In evolutionary genetics, mutational meltdown is a sub class of extinction vortex in which the environment and genetic predisposition mutually reinforce each other. Mutational meltdown (not to be confused with the concept of an error catastrophe) is the accumulation of harmful mutations in a small population, which leads to loss of fitness and decline of the population size, which may lead to further accumulation of deleterious mutations due to fixation by genetic drift.
Source: Wikipedia "Mutational meltdown" · CC BY-SA 4.0
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