How to Use gene flow in a Sentence

gene flow

noun
  • There had been, according to the study, almost no gene flow between the two groups.
    Kiona N. Smith, Ars Technica, 11 May 2018
  • This could help researchers to better understand how the birds’ dispersal of stick insect eggs affects the gene flow of the insects.
    Julissa Treviño, Smithsonian, 30 May 2018
  • Panama has always played a crucial role in the movement and gene flow of numerous neotropical forest species.
    Debbie Ponchner, Scientific American, 19 Aug. 2019
  • These examples suggest that adaptive gene flow may play an important role in oak evolution.
    Andrew L. Hipp, Scientific American, 15 July 2020
  • There's also an indication of gene flow from a ghost population into the Denisovan lineage, which has been seen in other studies.
    John Timmer, Ars Technica, 20 Feb. 2020
  • Roads can prevent species from migrating, constrain gene flow in animal populations and shrink their range.
    Nathaniel Scharping, Discover Magazine, 19 Dec. 2016
  • Exactly where this gene flow took place—whether on the South American coast or in the Marquesas Islands (where it first appeared)—cannot be answered with current genetic evidence.
    Scientific American, 16 Aug. 2021
  • People could lend eelgrass a helping hand, Kollars says, either by moving seeds and plants around to increase gene flow or by using eelgrass nurseries to support restoration efforts.
    Rebecca Dzombak, Smithsonian Magazine, 11 Aug. 2022
  • Traphagen says the wall won’t just affect individual locales like San Bernardino, but could change migration and gene flow at a continental scale.
    Richard Laugharn, National Geographic, 2 Nov. 2020
  • In small populations with restricted growth and little gene flow from the outside, even less helpful genetic features can become more commonplace through sheer chance.
    Quanta Magazine, 21 Apr. 2021
  • The new deep learning method is an attempt to do better, by seeking to explain levels of gene flow that are too small for the usual statistical approaches, and by offering a far more vast and complicated range of models to do so.
    Jordana Cepelewicz, WIRED, 10 Feb. 2019
  • For example, obviously contemporary Spaniards would be more subject to gene flow with other Europeans >1600 than their New World cousins.
    Razib Khan, Discover Magazine, 10 June 2013
  • Yet oaks form what is called a syngameon, in which ecologically and physically distinctive species persist in spite of ongoing gene flow.
    Andrew L. Hipp, Scientific American, 15 July 2020
  • Many researchers, such as Marcus Feldman, assume that this sort of correspondence is a natural outgrowth of the fact that gene flow tends to be demarcated by dialect continuums.
    Razib Khan, Discover Magazine, 16 May 2011
  • Their analytical model can also be applied to dogs and horses — indeed, to any species that show structured breeding in their populations instead of random gene flow.
    Quanta Magazine, 18 Sep. 2017
  • Clues are emerging about the unexpected influence of gene flow from ancient hominins on modern human populations before the latter left Africa.
    Wired, 1 Sep. 2019
  • Scientists characterized the clusters with five attributes, such as those with the greatest genetic diversity, or with improving gene flow across the network.
    Keith Ridler, idahostatesman, 6 June 2018
  • The model that included gene flow from archaic hominins produced results that more closely matched up to actual human populations in the region.
    Nathaniel Scharping, Discover Magazine, 25 June 2019
  • Several research groups are developing tools to accelerate gene flow in plants and animals, to create varietals of trees and corals that can adapt to their changing environments.
    Andrea Gawrylewski, Scientific American, 11 July 2019
  • This doesn’t allow a lot of gene flow—and seemingly surpassable obstacles, like small stretches of deep water—have provided enough separation for the animals to uniquely evolve in different places.
    National Geographic, 23 Jan. 2020
  • As a result, Zambia’s lions exhibit gene flow in mitochondrial, rather than nuclear, genes.
    Meilan Solly, Smithsonian, 28 Sep. 2019
  • According to Solomon, another big factor in modern evolution is gene flow, the movement of genes between different populations.
    Avery Hurt, Discover Magazine, 4 Feb. 2022
  • The relatively recent gene flow from Neanderthals into modern humans is there, as is an earlier one from the ancestors of modern humans into early Neanderthals.
    John Timmer, Ars Technica, 20 Feb. 2020
  • Biologists study these population structures to understand how genes flow.
    John Rennie, WIRED, 1 July 2018
  • The revisions include removing the population cap, adding a genetic objective to address limited gene flow, and restricting several ways in which land managers and private landowners are allowed to kill wolves, also called take provisions.
    Lindsey Botts, The Arizona Republic, 31 Oct. 2021
  • But habitat fragmentation linked with human development has left some tigers isolated in small reserves, and if current trends continue, the government may need to artificially maintain the gene flow by moving tigers between sanctuaries.
    Jason Daley, Smithsonian, 3 Dec. 2019
  • The university noted that the analysis found a surprising increase of variation during the Viking period that indicates gene flow into Scandinavia was especially intense during this period.
    Julia Musto, Fox News, 6 Jan. 2023
  • In doing so, scientists are able to trace the biogeographic history of infraspecific populations and better comprehend other factors like gene flow, fragmentation, range expansion and colonization.
    Julia Musto, Fox News, 16 May 2021

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'gene flow.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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