Exam 23: The Evolution of Populations

A fruit fly population has a gene with two alleles, A1 and A2. Tests show that 70% of the gametes produced in the population contain the A1 allele. If the population is in Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium, what proportion of the flies carry both A1 and A2?

In 1986, a nuclear power accident in Chernobyl, USSR (now Ukraine), led to high radiation levels for miles surrounding the plant. The high levels of radiation caused elevated mutation rates in the surviving organisms, and evolutionary biologists have been studying rodent populations in the Chernobyl area ever since. Based on your understanding of evolutionary mechanisms, which of the following most likely occurred in the rodent populations following the accident?

In 1983, a population of dark-eyed junco birds became established on the campus of the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), which is located many miles from the junco's normal habitat in the mixed-coniferous temperate forests in the mountains. Juncos have white outer tail feathers that the males display during aggressive interactions and during courtship displays. Males with more white in their tail are more likely to win aggressive interactions, and females prefer to mate with males with more white in their tails. Females have less white in their tails than do males, and display it less often. (Pamela J. Yeh. 2004. Rapid evolution of a sexually selected trait following population establishment in a novel habitat. Evolution 58[1]:166-74.) The UCSD campus male junco population tails are about 36% white, whereas the tails of males from nearby mountain populations are about 40-45% white. The founding stock of UCSD birds was likely from the nearby mountain populations because some of those birds overwinter on the UCSD campus each year. Population sizes on the UCSD campus have been reasonably large, and there are significant habitat differences between the UCSD campus and the mountain coniferous forests; UCSD campus has a more open environment (making birds more visible)and a lower junco density (decreasing intraspecific competition)than the mountain forests. Given this information, which of the following evolutionary mechanisms do you think is most likely responsible for the difference between the UCSD and mountain populations?

If individuals tend to mate within a subset of the population, there is ________.