Ferrets and Genetic Drift

Question 1

What is genetic diversity?

Answer 1

the biological variation that occurs within species

Question 2

What is a gene?

Answer 2

sections of DNA that code for specific proteins or functional RNA

Question 3

What is an allele?

Answer 3

different versions of the same gene

Question 4

What is a natural gene?

Answer 4

one not subject to natural selection, provides no advantage or disadvantage

Question 5

What is sampling error?

Answer 5

sample randomly differs from population

Question 6

What is the founder effect?

Answer 6

genetic difference in founding population due to sampling error

Question 7

What do gametes unite to form?

Answer 7

zygotes

Question 8

What is the gene pool?

Answer 8

all genes in a population

Question 9

What does the probability of an allele becoming fixed or lost over time depend on?

Answer 9

its initial frequency

Question 10

What is heterozygosity

Answer 10

proportion of heterozygotes in a population

Question 11

Does loss of heterozygosity occur in large populations?

Answer 11

yes but slower

Question 12

What does non-random (selective) mating accelerate?

Answer 12

loss of heterozygosity

Question 13

Is the effect of non-random (selective) mating dependent on population size?

Answer 13

no

Question 14

What is effective population size?

Answer 14

size of an idealized random mating population that loses heterozygosity at the same rate as the real population

Question 15

Is the effective population size always smaller or larger than the actual size?

Answer 15

smaller

Question 16

What does an unbalanced sex ration reduce?

Answer 16

effective population size

Question 17

What does a reserve design of one large area maintain better?

Answer 17

heterozygosity

Question 18

What is an advantage of a reserve design of one large area?

Answer 18

large population size

Question 19

What is a disadvantage of a reserve design of one large area?

Answer 19

when an allele is lost, it is totally gone

Question 20

What does a reserve design of many small areas maintain better?

Answer 20

both alleles in a global population better

Question 21

What is an advantage of a reserve design of many small areas?

Answer 21

losses of alleles occur within single populations

Question 22

What is a disadvantage of a reserve design of many small areas?

Answer 22

smaller population sizes are more subject to genetic drift

Question 23

What do the advantages and disadvantages of a reserve design of many small connected areas depend on?

Answer 23

exact reserve design and the degree of corridor use

Question 24

The closer the bottleneck population is in size to the actual population…

Answer 24

the closer allele frequency is to the actual

Question 25

What happens to allele frequency in large randomly mating populations?

Answer 25

allele frequency stays consistant

Question 26

What must be true for Hardy Weinberg Equilibrium?

Answer 26

• no mutation
• no selection
• large population
• no evolution/natural selection
• random mating

Question 27

In a random mating population, the closer the starting allele frequency is to 1…

Answer 27

the more likely other alleles will be lost

Question 28

In a random mating population, if you start with an allele frequency of 1 or 0…

Answer 28

it will remain constant unless mutation occurs

Question 29

How fast is genetic diversity lost in a small population

Answer 29

fast

Question 30

Is local breeding (inbreeding) or random mating worse in terms of genetic diversity loss?

Answer 30

local breeding