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Bottle necks and founder effects occur at any phase, change allele frequencies and can cause HW disequilibrium

a) True
b) False

User Rizza
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Final answer:

The statement is true; both bottleneck and founder effects are forms of genetic drift that change allele frequencies and can cause Hardy-Weinberg disequilibrium, leading to a deviation from expected genetic makeup in a population.

Step-by-step explanation:

The statement that bottle necks and founder effects change allele frequencies and can cause Hardy-Weinberg disequilibrium is true. These two phenomena are forms of genetic drift where allele frequencies in a population change randomly, and not due to natural selection.

The bottleneck effect occurs when there's a drastic reduction in population size due to events such as natural disasters, leading to a reduced gene pool where certain alleles may be lost from the population. Meanwhile, the founder effect occurs when a new population is established by a small group of individuals from a larger population, potentially carrying a different allele frequency.

Both effects lead to a deviation from Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium, which assumes that allele frequencies in a population remain constant from one generation to the next unless evolutionary forces act upon them. When allele frequency measurements in practice differ from Hardy-Weinberg predictions, it indicates that factors like the bottleneck and founder effects may be influencing the population's genetic makeup.

User Ricky Han
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