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What is microevolution?
Microevolution is simply a change in gene frequency within a
population. Evolution at this scale can be observed over short
periods of time — for example, between one generation and the next,
the frequency of a gene for pesticide resistance in a population of
crop pests increases. Such a change might come about because natural
selection favored the gene, because the population received new
immigrants carrying the gene, because some nonresistant genes
mutated to the resistant version, or because of random genetic drift
from one generation to the next.
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