Evolution is the gradual process resulting in the changes in the genetic material of a population over generations. The mechanism that Darwin proposed for evolution is the process of natural selection. Natural selection is the key mechanism of evolution which increases the frequency of advantageous alleles in a population. Due to the limited resources in nature, organism with heritable traits favoring their survival and reproduction produce more offspring. It causes the population to become adapted to their environment and results in organisms with better survival ability and reproduction. These traits become heritable due to the reproductive advantage and are passed from the parents to the offspring. Over generations, the advantageous heritable trait becomes dominant in the population. It is responsible for the variation in the gene pool of the population which increases their fitness.
Answer:
Mutations of enzymes involved in nucleotide excision repair.
Explanation:
- Xeroderma pigmentosum is a genetic disorder and the person suffering from this disorder is sensitive to ultraviolet light due to the disability of the enzymes involved in nucleotide excision repair which prevents DNA damage caused by ultraviolet light.
- Thus, the individuals are sensitive to the exposure of UV and suffer severe problems when exposed to sunlight.
- The major cause of the disorder is the inability to repair DNA damage caused by exposure to sunlight due to the mutation in an enzyme involved in nucleotide excision repair.
- Nucleotide excision repair is a DNA repair process that can excise out single-stranded DNA that is damaged by UV.
- UV exposure leads to the addition of bulky adducts in the DNA known as thymine dimers. The enzymes of NER are involved in the removal of these adducts by excising out a segment of DNA that contains such lesions.
- However, in the case of XP, the mutations make this repair system non-functional or partially functional and thus, the individual becomes highly sensitive to UV exposure.
Flagella are hairlike parts that push a bacterium through water or other liquids.
The nucleotide adenine forms a bond only with the nucleotide thymine. Therefore, if 13% of the DNA strand is adenine, 13% of the DNA strand will be thymine. Therefore, the correct answer is a: 13%.