Of Terms in Biology: Panmictic

by Elio
 

New research refutes the hypothesis that African lions consist of a single, randomly breeding (panmictic) popu­lation. (Credit: iStockphoto, Peter Malsbury)

A recent encounter with this term prompted a Web search for its precise meaning. Here is a sampling of the definitions we found.

1. A panmictic population is one where all individuals are potential partners. This assumes that there are no mating restrictions, neither genetic or behavioural, upon the population... (link)
    
2. Refers to a population in which mating is completely random (as opposed to assortative mating between certain adults in the population). (link)
    
3. Random mating of individuals within a population, the breeding individuals showing no tendency to choose partners with particular traits. (link)
    
4. Random mating, no sexual selection. (link)
    
5. The state of a population in which each organism has an equal chance to interbreed with every other organism. (link)
    
6. The process in a population by which mates are chosen at random with equal probability regardless of geographical location or genotype. (link)
    

Sample usage of the term in a sentence: Some species (e.g., Salmonella) were found to be clonal at all levels of analysis. At the other extreme, Neisseria gonorrhoeae is panmictic, with random association between loci.