Genetic divergence is the process of one species diverging over time into more than one species. Passing small random advantages characteristic changes over time from one generation to the next generations. The genetic characters can be observable structures from different species or they can be molecular entities, such as genes or pathways. This is a kind of relationship naturally observed in evolutionary biology.

Naturally occurring genetic divergences can be seen in some higher level characters of structure and function that are readily observable in organisms. For example, the vertebrate limb is one example of naturally occurring genetic divergence. The limb in many different species has a common origin, but has diverged somewhat in overall structure and function.

Genetic divergence operates on a genetic level favoring 2 or more alleles or 2 or more mixs of alleles over the original mixture of alleles in a population.

This genetics article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v • d • e