Question

In a small group of people living in a remote area of Kentucky, there is a high incidence of "blue skin" a condition that results from a variation in the structure of hemoglobin. All of the 'blue skinned' residents can trace their ancestry to one couple, who were among the original settlers of the region. The unusually high frequency of 'blue skin' in the area is an example of....a. Mutation b. Natural Selectionc. Sexual Selectiond. Genetic Drifte. Heterozygote Advantage

Answer 1

Answer: The correct answer to the question is option D

GENETIC DRIFT.

Explanation:

Genetic drift is also known as allelic drift or the Sewall Wright effect, is the gradual changes in gene frequencies in a population due to random events.

Genetic drift is a random process that can lead to large changes in populations over a short period of time.It is caused by recurring small population sizes, environmental influences, severe reductions in population size called "bottlenecks" and founder events where a new population starts from a small number of individuals as seen in the case of the small group of people living in the remote area of Kentucky who traced their ancestry to one couple who were among the original settlers of the region.

Due to chance alone, some alleles are likely to decrease in frequency and become eliminated. Other alleles are likely to increase in frequency and become fixed. These changes in allele frequencies that are due to chance are called genetic drift. Genetic drift causes a loss of genetic diversity in a population.

Answer 2

d. Genetic Drift

Step-by-step explanation:

Genetic drift, in Biology, is the change of the relative allele frequency of a population that occurs randomly over time. That is, the allele frequency of the original population becomes changed overtime.

Genetic drift can be said to be caused or favored by several factors, and this could include, small population size, population experiencing bottleneck effect or the founder effect, movement of a gene into a population.

The case of unusual high frequency of "blue skin" that occurred in the small group of people living in the remote area of Kentucky can be said to be an example of genetic drift, as this trait were originated from one couple who migrated as one of the settlers into the region.