Answer:
8. D
9. A
10. A
11. C
12. D
Explanation:
8. Natural selection works on variation that exists in the genes of organisms. Antelopes who have genetic variation that makes their legs more muscular are at an advantage because they can outrun predators. This increases the chance that they will reach reproductive age, and be able to pass this advantageous trait onto their offspring. Over time, this selection pressure makes the variant more common in a population.
9. Beneficial traits are those that give a selective advantage. This could be one that helps it outrun predators (like above), avoid illness and death, gives it a reproductive advantage (i.e. more attractive to mates), or makes it better able to digest certain foods, for example. The formation of cancer cells would be harmful for an organism, reducing its fitness and perhaps leading to death. The inability to reproduce would mean genetic info is not passed on to the next generation, and stopping the production of an essential protein would likely lead to death. However, resistance to a virus would help an organism avoid illness and death, improving fitness.
10. Genotypes are what organisms inherit from their parents, i.e. the genetic information that is passed on. However, the way in which different alleles interact and are expressed is the phenotype. If we take the above example, natural selection is acting on the phenotype of muscular legs. If an antelope had the muscular leg genotype but for some reason it was not being expressed (maybe another gene is interfering with it), then the antelope would not have a selective advantage, and natural selection could not be act on the trait.
11. A trait that better suits an organism to its environment will be selected for by natural selection. This is because that organism is more likely to survive due to the trait, giving it a selective advantage. Therefore, if a mutation arose making the giraffe more adapted to the environment, it would be positively selected for, and through evolution would become more common.
12. This is an example of selective breeding, which has been happening for generations. Farmers spot desirable traits, and cross horses with these traits in an attempt to enhance the trait or to ensure it is passed on to the next generation. This is not natural selection, because farmers are making it happen artificially. It is not cloning or recombinant DNA, which are terms scientists use for actually manipulating the DNA in the lab.
This is the law of dominance in genetics. The dominant allele will mask the effects of the
recessive allele and therefore will be the visible trait of the phenotype. Most often, the dominant allele codes for functional proteins, while the recessive does not code for functional proteins. Dominance in genetics is
significant in Mendelian inheritance.
It is the same as creating more pests or setting up dominant species which upset the ecological food pyramid leading to decimation of trophic levels or predators and energy cycling. Fishes feed on microscopic algae and animals the primary base of the food chain in water, if they are not checked they will choke the rivers and oceans causing toxic waters. Fish feed to contain them, in the process they grow and increase in numbers but their population is checked by bigger fishes and so on till it reaches a top predator which is usually a large animal.
