Biology - Variation

Question 1

What is continuous variation?

Answer 1

Impacts lots of genes, no discrete categories, is affected by the environment eg. height or intelligence

Question 2

What is discontinuous variation?

Answer 2

fits into discrete categories, impacts by a few genes and is not affected by the environment eg. blood group, genetic disorders

Question 3

What is variation?

Answer 3

The differences in characteristics between individuals

Question 4

What is inherited variation?

Answer 4

variation caused by the genetic material you inherit from your biological parents

Question 5

Why is variation important for the survival of a species?

Answer 5

It is important as if the environment changes, some individuals will be able to survive so the species will not become extinct

Question 6

What does it mean if there is not much variation within a species?

Answer 6

It means that all the individuals will have similar alleles and characteristics, so it is more likely that the species will go extinct

Question 7

What is a problem with selective breeding?

Answer 7

By breeding animals/plants for particular genetic characteristics, the species may all end up having the same alleles and characteristics, so if their environment changes, they may all go extinct

Question 8

What is the process of selective breeding?

Answer 8

select individuals with the desired traits
breed them together
select the offspring with the desired traits
repeat over many more generations until all the offspring have the desired characteristics

Question 9

What is Inbreeding?

Answer 9

inbreeding is the process of breeding close relatives within the family

Question 10

What is variation between different organisms caused by?

Answer 10

genetic differences
environmental differences
a combination of the two