Wright and random genetic drift (1931)

Abstract

In 1931 the American biologist Sewall Wright developed the study of a stochastic model in population genetics, which is based on the same assumptions as in the Hardy–Weinberg law except that the population is not assumed infinitely large. The frequencies of the genotypes are no longer constant. One of the two alleles will in fact disappear, but maybe after a very long time. The interpretation of this model remained a subject of dispute between Wright and Fisher, the latter estimating that natural selection plays a more important role in evolution than stochasticity.