Question
osquitoes can carry and transmit many diseases to humans. In the past, the insecticide DDT was heavily used to reduce mosquito populations in order to reduce instances of disease transmission. However, after some time, mosquito populations developed a resistance to DDT, which made the DDT less effective in reducing mosquito populations.
Based on what you’ve learned about natural selection, in 3–5 sentences, describe how mosquitoes may have come to develop this resistance.
Based on what you’ve learned about natural selection, in 3–5 sentences, describe how mosquitoes may have come to develop this resistance.
Answers
GPT 3.5
Mosquito populations have a high genetic variation, meaning that some individuals may have had a natural resistance to DDT. When DDT was applied, the mosquitoes that were not resistant died off, leaving only the resistant individuals to reproduce and pass on their resistance to future generations. Over time, this led to an increase in the proportion of mosquitoes with resistance in the population. This process, known as natural selection, allowed for the evolution of mosquito populations that were resistant to DDT.