The Nature of Genetic Systems

The gene pool is defined as those genes that are available to a continuously interbreeding group of animals, human or nonhuman. Considered as a system, the entities composing the gene pool are individual genotypes (gene combinations). The ultimate units, of course, are the genes themselves, but they are able to interact with each other only as genotypes, which can be considered as subsystems of the whole. The concept of the gene pool is thus a somewhat artificial abstraction because genotypes can interact with each other only through higher levels of organization, particularly as genetic factors affect behavior. Thus, the basic genetic system is the genotype, and the gene pool is really the sum of all potential genotypes that can be derived by the reassortment of genes in a population of interbreeding individuals.