Population Genetics Quiz

Imagine a population of wildflowers, some white and some yellow. The yellow allele, Y, is dominant and the white allele, y, is recessive. There are 15 YY plants, 30 Yy plants, and 5 yy plants. Calculate the frequency of the dominant allele.

• 60%

• 75%

• 40%

• 10%

There is a population of mice in an area. The population consists of 50 individuals. Brown (B) is the dominant allele and tan (b) is the recessive allele. There are 25 BB, 20Bb, and 5bb. What is the allele frequency of the recessive allele?

• 70%

• 10%

• 30%

• 25%

Changes in allele frequencies within a population due to chance are called

• gene flow

• gene pool

• sexual selection

• genetic drift

Genetic variation can arise from a random change in the DNA of a gene. This change is called a(n)

• mutation

• gene flow

• gene pool

• allele

What increases genetic variation when animals move from one population to another population?

• genetic drift

• sexual selection

• bottleneck effect

• gene flow

A problem in all populations influenced by the bottleneck effect is that

• genetic variation is lost

• alleles can't become fixed

• offspring inherit harmful alleles

• chance no longer affects them

Mutations are important because they bring about

• death of the organism in which they develop

• genetic variation needed for a population to evolve

• benefits for the individual, but not for the population

• the traits needed to attract mates

Genetic drift tends to occur in populations that

• are very large

• are small

• are formed from new species

• have unchanging allele frequencies

The movement of alleles into or out of a population due to migration is called

• mutation

• gene flow

• nonrandom mating

• natural selection

Which of the following statements describe what all members of a population share?

• They are temporally isolated from each other.

• They are geographically isolated from each other.

• They are members of the same species.

• They have identical genes.