Question

1. A clouded leopard (Neofelis nebulosa) is a leopard-like cat found in Southeast Asia that has large patch patterns instead of the spots of the leopard (Panthera pardus) found in Africa and much of Asia. In recent news you can read stories declaring the clouded leopard of the islands of Borneo and Sumatra as being a different species from those found on the Asian mainland. If indeed these cats are a different species, this would be evidence of

Multiple Choice

• allopatric speciation.

• sympatric speciation.

• parapatric speciation.

• disruptive selection.

2. The federal government approaches you and asks if you would be willing to take 1,000 wild mustang horses to help reduce mustang overpopulation on federal park land. You agree and release them on your huge ranch. Hundreds of years later your descendents travel back to the old family ranch to see if there are any horses left. What they find astounds them—all the horses are either miniature brown type or very large brown draft horse types. None of the medium sized multicolored mustangs remain. Your descendents consult a horse geneticist and she tells them that this is probably the result of

Multiple Choice

• a genetic bottleneck.

• directional selection pressures operating on your ranch.

• disruptive selection pressure operating on your ranch.

• a mutation.

3. Except in identical twins or clones, no two individuals are genetically alike. All genetic variety in individuals comes from the fact that half of an individual's genes come from the male parent and the other half from the female parent.

True or False

4. You work for a zoo where you manage the breeding program for the cheetah. Your goal is to prevent inbreeding by obtaining mates from other zoos, making sure that your cats produce healthy offspring. In analyzing the genes of the cheetahs in all the zoo breeding programs, you notice very little variety of traits (alleles). Select all of the following conclusions which could be supported by your findings?

Check All That Apply

• All of the zoo cheetahs come from just a few common ancestors.All of the zoo cheetahs come from just a few common ancestors.

• The number of individual cheetahs currently in zoos must be very low.The number of individual cheetahs currently in zoos must be very low.

• The variety of traits found in wild cheetahs is very narrow, possibly due to only a few of the animals surviving some event or series of events in the past.The variety of traits found in wild cheetahs is very narrow, possibly due to only a few of the animals surviving some event or series of events in the past.

• Even after several generations, the baby cheetahs produced at your zoo will show very little genetic variation.Even after several generations, the baby cheetahs produced at your zoo will show very little genetic variation.

Answer 1

QUESTION 1

Option 'a' (allopatric speciation) is correct

Justification: Because allopatric speciation is referred to as a population which is separated geographically occurring when biological populations of same species becomes isolated from each other to an extent, which interferes with the flow of genes.

Justification for incorrect options:

• Option 'b' is incorrect because sympatric speciation is referred to as an evolution of new species from the ancestor species, while they both continue to inhabit the same geographic region.
• Option 'c' is incorrect because parapatric speciation is referred to as an evolution of two subpopulations of a species into reproductive isolation from one another by exchanging genes.
• Option 'd' is incorrect because disruptive selection describes the population changes.

QUESTION 2

Option 'c' (disruptive selection pressure operating on your ranch) is correct

Justification: Because disruptive selection describes the changes in population genetics where the population is divided into two distinct groups.

Justification for incorrect options:

• Option 'a' is incorrect because a genetic bottleneck is referred to as a reduction in the size of population due to some environmental changes like floods, earthquakes etc.,
• Option 'b' is incorrect because directional selection is a mode of natural selection by favoring extreme phenotype over other phenotypes which causes the allele frequency to shift over time in the direction of phenotype.
• Option 'd' is incorrect because a mutation refers to changes in DNA.

QUESTION 3

The given statement is "TRUE".

Justification: Only identical twins are genetically alike as they come from the same fertilized egg and so they share identical genetic profiles. But, unlike identical twins or clones, no two individuals are genetically identical. They have infrequent genetic variations due to mutations occurring during their development and also due to the variations in the gene copy-number. Half of the genes of individuals comes from male parent and another half comes from female parent and so they are not genetically identical or alike and hence the given statement is true.

Thank you!