Exam 23: The Evolution of Populations

Use the following information to answer the questions below. A large population of laboratory animals has been allowed to breed randomly for a number of generations. After several generations, 25% of the animals display a recessive trait (aa), the same percentage as at the beginning of the breeding program. The rest of the animals show the dominant phenotype, with heterozygotes indistinguishable from the homozygous dominants. -You sample a population of butterflies and find that 42% are heterozygous at a particular locus. What should be the frequency of the recessive allele in this population?

Which of these is the smallest unit that natural selection can change?

Sponges are known to contain a single Hox gene. Most invertebrates have a cluster of 10 similar Hox genes, all located on the same chromosome. Most vertebrates have four such clusters of Hox genes, located on four non-homologous chromosomes. The process responsible for the change in number of Hox genes from sponges to invertebrates was most likely __________, whereas a different process that could have potentially contributed to the cluster's presence on more than one chromosome was __________. I. binary fission II. translation III. gene duplication IV. non-disjunction V. transcription

Use the following information to answer the questions below. A large population of laboratory animals has been allowed to breed randomly for a number of generations. After several generations, 25% of the animals display a recessive trait (aa), the same percentage as at the beginning of the breeding program. The rest of the animals show the dominant phenotype, with heterozygotes indistinguishable from the homozygous dominants. -What proportion of the population is probably heterozygous (Aa)for this trait?

The same gene that causes various coat patterns in wild and domesticated cats also causes the cross-eyed condition in these cats, the cross-eyed condition being slightly maladaptive. In a hypothetical environment, the coat pattern that is associated with crossed eyes is highly adaptive, with the result that both the coat pattern and the cross-eyed condition increase in a feline population over time. Which statement is supported by these observations?

Use the following information to answer the questions below. In a hypothetical population of 1,000 people, tests of blood-type genes show that 160 have the genotype AA, 480 have the genotype AB, and 360 have the genotype BB. -What is the frequency of the B allele?

In the wild, male house finches (Carpodus mexicanus) vary considerably in the amount of red pigmentation in their head and throat feathers, with colors ranging from pale yellow to bright red. These colors come from carotenoid pigments that are found in the birds' diets; no vertebrates are known to synthesize carotenoid pigments. Thus, the brighter red the male's feathers are, the more successful he has been at acquiring the red carotenoid pigment by his food-gathering efforts (all other factors being equal). -Which of the following terms are appropriately applied to the situation described in the previous question?

In a very large population, a quantitative trait has the following distribution pattern: Figure 23.1 -What is True of the trait whose frequency distribution in a large population appears above? It has probably undergone

Cattle breeders have improved the quality of meat over the years by which process?

Gene flow is a concept best used to describe an exchange between

Use the following information to answer the questions below. HIV's genome of RNA includes code for reverse transcriptase (RT), an enzyme that acts early in infection to synthesize a DNA genome off of an RNA template. The HIV genome also codes for protease (PR), an enzyme that acts later in infection by cutting long viral polyproteins into smaller, functional proteins. Both RT and PR represent potential targets for antiretroviral drugs. Drugs called nucleoside analogs (NA) act against RT, whereas drugs called protease inhibitors (PI) act against PR. -Which of these makes determining the evolutionary relatedness of different species based on the amino acid sequence of homologous proteins generally less accurate than determinations of relatedness based on the nucleotide sequences of homologous genes?

Use the following information to answer the questions below. A large population of laboratory animals has been allowed to breed randomly for a number of generations. After several generations, 25% of the animals display a recessive trait (aa), the same percentage as at the beginning of the breeding program. The rest of the animals show the dominant phenotype, with heterozygotes indistinguishable from the homozygous dominants. -In a Hardy-Weinberg population with two alleles, A and a, that are in equilibrium, the frequency of the allele a is 0.4. What is the percentage of the population that is homozygous for this allele?

In seedcracker finches from Cameroon, small- and large-billed birds specialize in cracking soft and hard seeds, respectively. If long-term climatic change resulted in all seeds becoming hard, what type of selection would then operate on the finch population?

When imbalances occur in the sex ratio of sexual species that have two sexes (i.e., other than a 50:50 ratio), the members of the minority sex often receive a greater proportion of care and resources from parents than do the offspring of the majority sex. This is most clearly an example of

Use the following information to answer the questions below. In a hypothetical population of 1,000 people, tests of blood-type genes show that 160 have the genotype AA, 480 have the genotype AB, and 360 have the genotype BB. -In peas, a gene controls flower color such that R = purple and r = white. In an isolated pea patch, there are 36 purple-flowering plants and 64 white-flowering plants. Assuming Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium, what is the value of q for this population?

No two people are genetically identical, except for identical twins. The chief cause of genetic variation among human individuals is

The following questions refer to this information: In the year 2500, five male space colonists and five female space colonists (all unrelated to each other) settle on an uninhabited Earthlike planet in the Andromeda galaxy. The colonists and their offspring randomly mate for generations. All ten of the original colonists had free earlobes, and two were heterozygous for that trait. The allele for free earlobes is dominant to the allele for attached earlobes. -Which of these is closest to the allele frequency in the founding population?

In a hypothetical population's gene pool, an autosomal gene, which had previously been fixed, undergoes a mutation that introduces a new allele, one inherited according to incomplete dominance. Natural selection then causes stabilizing selection at this locus. Consequently, what should happen over the course of many generations?

Male satin bowerbirds adorn structures that they build, called "bowers," with parrot feathers, flowers, and other bizarre ornaments in order to attract females. Females inspect the bowers and, if suitably impressed, allow males to mate with them. The evolution of this male behavior is due to

Which of these evolutionary agents is most consistent at causing populations to become better suited to their environments over the course of generations?