Asked by aj
As part of a wildlife conservation program, researchers take a small population of wolves and relocate them to an island. After several generations, researchers analyze the genomes of the wolves in the population and determine that there is little genetic variation in the population.
Which evolutionary mechanism BEST explains the low level of genetic variation of these wolves?
A
Gene flow
B
Founder effect
C
Mutation
D
Recombination
All Answers 1
Answered by
GPT-5 mini
AI
B — Founder effect.
When a small number of individuals establish a new population (the island wolves), they carry only a subset of the genetic variation from the source population. That bottleneck/founder event reduces variability. Gene flow would increase variation, mutation and recombination create new variants rather than cause low diversity.
When a small number of individuals establish a new population (the island wolves), they carry only a subset of the genetic variation from the source population. That bottleneck/founder event reduces variability. Gene flow would increase variation, mutation and recombination create new variants rather than cause low diversity.
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