Question

You are studying three populations of birds. Population A has 10 birds, of which 1 is brown (a recessive trait) and 9 are red. Population B has 100 birds, of which 10 are brown. Population C has 30 birds, and 3 of them are brown. In which population would it be least likely that an accident would significantly alter the frequency of the brown allele?

Answer 1

Answer:

Less affected would be the group with the largest number of individuals.

As there are 100 birds in Population II and only 10 have brown feathers, there are 90 more birds uninfected.

The total population is low for Populations I and III, so any incident would have some impact.

Answer 2

Answer:

Population B

Explanation:

This is due to genetic variation. Genetic variation can be caused by mutation (which can create entirely new alleles in a population), random mating, random fertilization, and recombination between homologous chromosomes during meiosis (which reshuffles alleles within an organism's offspring). In Population B out of 100 birds only 10 birds have a recessive trait which is brown, therefore it is less likely that an accident would significantly alter the frequency of the brown allele when compared to other populations; and it is most likely in population A.