Question

1. Which of the following is NOT a way sexual reproduction increases variation?

Group of answer choices

a.recombining alleles into new chromosomes

b.producing 4 different gametes in meiosis

c.generating new alleles

d. combining DNA from two individuals

2. Muller's ratchet affects purely asexually reproducing populations and not populations that (at least occasionally) reproduce sexually because _______.

Group of answer choices

a. deleterious mutations cannot be purged from the population

b. the mutation rate is higher in asexual reproduction

c. mutations are deleterious

d. mutations can go to fixation

Answer 1

1. C- generating new alleles is NOT a way sexual reproduction increases variation.

(Because new alleles are formed due to mutation by creating slightly different versions of the same genes. Once new alleles are created, meiosis and sexual reproduction combine different alleles in new ways to increase genetic variation. But new alleles are not created by sexual reproduction).

2. Muller's ratchet affects purely asexually reproducing populations and not populations that (at least occasionally) reproduce sexually because: a- deleterious mutations cannot be purged from the population.

(Muller's ratchet is a process in which absence of recombination, during asexual reproduction, cause accumulation of deleterious mutations and affects asexual population. In asexual reproduction deleterious mutation cannot be purged from the population and it got accumulated. But in sexual reproduction, due to genetic purging, the frequency of deleterious mutation is reduced by an increased efficiency of natural selection prompted by inbreeding).