Why is variation in clones lower than with a natural population?
Clones are organisms, tissues, or cells that are derived from a common mother organism, and thus tend to have identical, or nearly duplicative, genomes. A natural population, on the other hand, generally has genetic diversity at a level that is typical for the entire species. Allele frequency distributions within a population are gene-dependent, and can be very low for genes that a vital to life (i.e., where lethality is highly likely if there is any variation). However, for some genes, such as those which control the color of human irises, there can be considerable variation in a population, but little or none in a clone.
