Answer:
c. Any mutation in the sequence is selected against.
Step-by-step explanation:
When a gene sequence is said to be highly conserved during evolution, it means that it has a low rate of mutations and mutations in this sequence are not favored by the evolutionary forces. Evolutionary forces such as natural selection favor the organisms with the non-mutated sequence. Since the promoter sequence TATA box is highly conserved, evolutionary forces do not favor the phenotypes having mutations in this sequence. On the other hand, the organisms having the wild type TATA box sequence are favored during evolution.