BioConcepts

mutation pressureMutationsdruck (ger.)

• The tendency for recurrent mutation (rather than selection) to alter the frequency of a particular allele within a population, or more generally to affect the genetic constitution of an organism. (OED 2011)
  category mutation see also selection pressure

  1929

  the selection pressure, being always just twice the mutation pressure (until dominance is nearly complete), would in time practically fix the modifier against such mutation

  Wright, S. (1929). The evolution of dominance: Comment on Dr. Fisher’s reply. American Naturalist 63, 556-561: 557.

  1929

  It might be suggested that mutation pressure is the factor which reduces useless vestigial organs beyond the stage at which they can exert any conceivable deleterious effect, e.g., in the fre- quently cited case of the whale’s hind legs; and that another evo- lutionary force of the same order of magnitude can not be con- sidered negligible.

  Wright, S. (1929). Fisher’s theory of dominance. Amer. Nat. 63, 274-279: 276.