gene pool

American  

noun

1. the total genetic information in the gametes of all the individuals in a population.

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gene pool British  

noun

1. the sum of all the genes in an interbreeding population

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gene pool Scientific  

1. The collective genetic information contained within a population of sexually reproducing organisms.

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gene pool Cultural  

1. The total number of genes available in a given species.

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Loosely speaking, the gene pool represents the total breeding stock available to the species.

Etymology

Origin of gene pool

First recorded in 1945–50

Example Sentences

Rosemary Kind chairs the Entelbucher Mountain Dog Club of Great Britain, and says they need to bring puppies into the country because "the gene pool is so small" that if they only bred from those here they risked introducing "health conditions that we'd rather not have in the breed".

From BBC

They dated the bones, analysed the DNA and compared this with the gene pool of modern cats.

From BBC

This fits in with Kennedy's long-standing history of eugenics-tinged notions that disease is a good thing, falsely claiming that it strengthens the gene pool, and insinuating that it makes survivors stronger.

From Salon

Millet plays with the title and with the idea of atavism, in which an ancient trait asserts itself by skipping forward a few generations to suddenly appear in the gene pool.

From Los Angeles Times

Additionally, ancient adaptation signals can be masked by genetic drift -- random fluctuations in the frequency that genes appear -- and population mixing, which causes certain adaptive traits to disappear from the gene pool.

From Science Daily