Question

Which of the following is true about natural selection?

A.
Natural selection causes changes in populations because of the differential reproductive success of genetically varied individuals.
B.
Natural selection causes changes in individual organisms because individuals adapt during their lifetime to better suit their environment.
C.
Natural selection acts upon asexually reproducing populations that lack genetic variation among individual organisms.
D.
Natural selection acts upon individual organisms by changing their genetic code through a process known as gene flow.

Answer 1

The correct answer is A, where natural selection influences populations via differential reproductive success tied to advantageous genetic variations.

Step-by-step explanation:

The correct answer is A. Natural selection causes changes in populations because of the differential reproductive success of genetically varied individuals. This is due to adaptive evolution where beneficial alleles become more prevalent in a population because they contribute to an organism's survivability and reproductive fitness.

Conversely, alleles that are deleterious decrease in frequency as they may lead to traits that are disadvantageous for survival or reproduction. It is important to note that natural selection acts on the phenotype of entire organisms, not on individual alleles or the genetic code and does not produce adaptations in the individual organism during its lifetime.