Unit 7: Mutations

Question 1

What is the formula for calculating mutation rate (u)

Answer 1

u = number of new cases/ 2 x total number of individuals

Question 2

What are mutations

Answer 2

Mutations are errors in the transmission of genetic information from parents to progeny

Question 3

What is the primary source of inbreeding depression

Answer 3

Increased homozygosity of deleterious alleles

Question 4

What does the mutation-reversion equilibrium mean

Answer 4

It means that both the mutation allele and the new allele will eventually reach a specific frequency in the population regardless of their starting frequencies

Question 5

Why can you not rely on mutation rate alone to recover genetic variation after a bottleneck in a population

Answer 5

Mutations take a long time to actually make visible difference in a population.
It takes a long time to pass down a mutation occurring in one individual to enough individuals to make a difference
This is also dependent on the population’s generation time.