Question

you have been doing extensive reseach for thirty years on the frequency of coat colors black grey white in a guinea pig population located in the Andes mountain. You supect that your guinea pig population is undergoing stabilization selection if this was the case what did you expect to find when you graph the data

Answer 1

Answer-

Stabilizing selection favors the average or intermediate phenotypes and eliminates both extreme varients that fall towards both ends of bell-shaped curve of variability distribution of phenotypes. This type of selection acts in the absence of environmental changes for a long period.

Variation introduced in the population by genetic recombination , migration and mutation in a constant environment are eliminated because the individuals are already adapted to the given environment. Stabilizing selection operates rarely because the environment is rarely constant.

Example- In Guinea pig population, three coat colors are supposed to be observed. Black and white are two extreme phenotypes, while grey is intermediate phenotype. Over a period of time, the intermediate phenotype that is close to mean value will survive successfully, whereas the most extreme phenotypes tend to be eliminated.

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