KA 2: evolution: fitness

Question 1

what is fitness?

Answer 1

an indication of an individual’s ability to be successful at surviving and reproducing

Question 2

what is fitness a measure of?

Answer 2

the tendency of some organisms to produce more surviving offspring than competing members of the same species

Question 3

fitness refers to…

Answer 3

the contribution made to the gene pool of the next generation by individual genotypes

Question 4

what terms can fitness be defined in?

Answer 4

-absolute
-relative

Question 5

what is absolute fitness?

Answer 5

the ratio between the frequency of individuals of a particular genotype after selection, to those before selection

Question 6

what is the formula for absolute fitness?

Answer 6

frequency of a particular genotype after selection/frequency of a particular genotype before selection

Question 7

if the absolute fitness is 1…

Answer 7

then the frequency of that genotype is stable

Question 8

a greater value than 1 conveys…
a lesser value than 1 conveys…

Answer 8

-an increase in the genotype
-a decrease in the genotype

Question 9

what is relative fitness?

Answer 9

the ratio of the number of surviving offspring per individual of a particular genotype to the number of surviving offspring per individual of the most successful

Question 10

give the relative fitness formula

Answer 10

number of surviving offspring per individual of a particular genotype/ number of surviving offspring per individual of the most successful genotype