336,969 views
24 votes
24 votes
In large populations, small fluctuations in survivorship or reproduction among individual organisms are unlikely to affect allele or genotype frequencies in the population.

a. True
b. False

User Sanoj Lawrence
by
2.5k points

1 Answer

13 votes
13 votes

Answer: True.

Step-by-step explanation:

A population is defined as the set of individuals that inhabit a given geographic area. A population has a certain allele frequency, which is the measure of the relative proportion of alleles in a given population, expressed as a percentage or unit. It is estimate using the number of times the allele is found in a locus and dividing it by the total number of alleles. While the genotypic frequency refers to the number of times that each of the genotypes generated by the two-by-two combinations of the alleles involved in the locus under study appears in relation to the total number of genotypes (which will be equal to the total number of individuals included in the study).

The population can be increased or decreased according to the birth and death rates. Generally, unless specific alterations occur, such as the spread of a disease, immigration, emigration, natural disasters, and others, the size of the population will remain constant. This means that the birth rate is quite similar to the death rate. And the larger the population, the more difficult it is to disturb this balance between births and deaths. So if small fluctuations in survival or reproduction occur between individuals, it is unlikely that this will affect the frequency of alleles and/or genotypes. This is explained using the Hardy-Weinberg principle states that the genetic composition of a population remains in equilibrium as long as no mutation occurs, and nor natural selection nor any other factor acts. After a generation of random mating, the frequencies of the genotypes of a locus are fixed at an equilibrium value. Then, the genetic variation in a population will remain constant from one generation to the next in the absence of extreme disturbing factors such as those mentioned above (diseases, natural disasters, and others).

Note that for this principle to be fulfilled, the population must be diploid (have two alleles of each gene), must reproduce sexually in a random manner, and must be large enough to minimize the effect of genetic drift (random fluctuations in allele frequencies from one generation to the next, due to random events that can cause certain traits to become dominant or disappear from a population).

User CharlieB
by
2.9k points