Question

There are three isolated populations of garter snakes: population A has had a constant population size of about 50,000, population B has had a constant population size of about 12,000, and population C has had a constant population size of about 2,000. We would expect to see the greatest fluctuations of allele frequencies in population _______ because this population would experience the _______ genetic drift.

Answer 1

1. Population C

2. Greatest genetic drift

Step-by-step explanation:

Genetic drift is the change in allele frequencies over generations just by chance or sampling error. In particular, small populations have a minor amount of individuals, and therefore, a minor number of alleles. This can produce that over generations some alleles would be more inherited than others just by chance not because of natural selection or assortative mating. So, in this example, population C is the most prone population to have a great effect of genetic drift.