answer the questions below

1. For the pedigree shows in handout 1, the mutation may be:

   		dominant autosomal
   		recessive autosomal
   		X-linked recessive
   		A, B or C
   		A or B only

1 points

QUESTION 2

1. Gregor Mendel conducted a testcross for pea color in which yellow is dominant to green in order to determine the genotype of a particular pea plant. If the individual plant being “tested” by Mendel was heterozygous, then the resulting offspring would likely be:

   		all yellow
   		all green
   		1/2 yellow, 1/2 green
   		3/4 yellow, 1/4 green
   		1/4 yellow, 3/4 green

1 points

QUESTION 3

1. Allele D is dominant to allele d. A heterozygote is crossed with another individual of the same genotype. Sixteen (16) offspring are produced from this cross. In theory, how many of the offspring will display the dominant phenotype?

   		16
   		12
   		9
   		3
   		1

1 points

QUESTION 4

1. A true-breeding cow with red hair is crossed with a true-breeding cow with white hair and a red and white spotted calf is born. This result suggests that the allele for red hair is white hair in cows.

   		completely dominant to
   		completely recessive to
   		codominant with
   		incompletely dominant to
   		epistatic to

1 points

QUESTION 5

1. The genes for red-green colorblindness and hemophilia are both located on the human X-chromosome. Thus, these genes________________.

   		belong to the same linkage group
   		are X-linked
   		assort independently of one another
   		both a and b
   		both b and c

1 points

QUESTION 6

1. Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium provides a quantitative basis for studying genetics in natural populations. Which of the following is NOT a necessary assumption for Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium?

   		Similar genotypes mate preferentially with one another
   		Populations are assumed to be very large
   		There is no migration into or out of the population
   		There is no mutation at the locus of interest.
   		The gene is assumed to not be under natural selection.

1 points

QUESTION 7

1. Which of the following is true for a single population experiencing random genetic drift (and no other evolutionary forces)?

   		allelic frequencies remain constant over time
   		genotype frequencies remain constant over time
   		all loci in the gene pool are affected by the drift process
   		genotype frequencies change, but allele frequencies do not
   		none of these is correct because A, B, C and D are all false

1 points

QUESTION 8

1. It is known that allele C mutates to allele c with at a rate of 10-5 and that allele c mutates to allele C at a rate of 10-7. Given many generations and a large population size, what will the eventual outcome of this system be?

   		Fixation for allele C
   		Fixation for allele c
   		A stable equilibrium with allele C being the most common (>50%) allele
   		A stable equilibrium with allele c being the most common (>50%) allele
   		Canâ t predict the outcome due to the action of random drift

1 points

QUESTION 9

1. If you are breeding in negative assortative way, then you choose your mates:

   		without considering whether or not they are related to you.
   		if they are related to you.
   		if they look very different from you.
   		if they are unrelated to you.
   		if they look like you.

1 points

QUESTION 10

1. Individuals in a population of purple people earters are polymorphic at a single locus that leads to variation in purple people eater pup viability. 45% of the pups with genotype PP are viable, 54% of pups with genotype Pp are viable, but only 4% of pups with genotype pp are viable. What model of natural selection best fits these data?

   		Selection for a completely dominant trait.
   		Selection for a completely recessive trait.
   		Partial dominance
   		Underdominance
   		Overdominance

1 points

QUESTION 11

1. Which of the following are the advantages of asexual reproduction over sexual?

   		Easier for lineages to adapt to new environments
   		Higher productivity for the same investment
   		Higher levels of genome-scale mutations
   		Immune to antibiotic resistance
   		Not found in Eukaryotes

1 points

QUESTION 12

1. Which of the following are the advantages of sexual reproduction over asexual?

   		Easier for lineages to adapt to new environments
   		Higher productivity for the same investment
   		Lower levels of genome-scale mutations
   		Immune to antibiotic resistance
   		Not found in Eukaryotes

1 points

QUESTION 13

1. Which of the following best describes the “Red Queen” hypothesis?

   		Investment in sperm production is mostly wasted.
   		Adaptive evolution is accelerated due to breaking of linkage disquilibrium.
   		The evolution and maintenance of sex is in response to a host-parasite arms-race.
   		In the absence of genetic recombination due to e.g., sexual reproduction, deleterious mutations will accumulate in an irreversible manner (linkage disequilibrium)
   		There are trade-offs between the costs and benefits of sexual reproduction.

1 points

QUESTION 14

1. Which of the following best describes the “Muller’s Ratchet”?

   		Investment in sperm production is mostly wasted.
   		Adaptive evolution is accelerated due to breaking of linkage disquilibrium.
   		The evolution and maintenance of sex is in response to a host-parasite arms-race.
   		In the absence of genetic recombination due to e.g., sexual reproduction, deleterious mutations will accumulate in an irreversible manner (linkage disequilibrium)
   		There are trade-offs between the costs and benefits of sexual reproduction.

1 points

QUESTION 15

1. Refer to the phylogeny shown in Figure 2. Which of the following characters are NOT shared by the Actinoptrygii (ray-finned fish) and Mammalia (mammals)?

   		Lobed fins
   		Notochord
   		Lungs or lung derivatives
   		Mineralized skeleton
   		Vertebral column

1 points

QUESTION 16

1. Which of the following is an example of the process of evolution?

   		A population of snowshoe hares having a different frequency of alleles than the previous generation.
   		Trees dropping their leaves in the fall.
   		A man becoming immune to a strain of virus that caused him to have a cold when he was younger.
   		A female bird laying more eggs one season than she did the three previous seasons combined.
   		All of the above are examples of the process of evolution.

1 points

QUESTION 17

1. Sexual reproduction can speed the spread of adaptations in a population because

   		Males and females must travel to locate each other, thereby spreading their genes more broadly.
   		Sexually transmitted diseases reduce fitness of individuals.
   		Recombination can lead to novel genotypes.
   		Beneficial mutations can be combined and harmful mutations can be purged.
   		Both c and d are correct.

1 points

QUESTION 18

1. The Red Queen effect refers to the fact that

   		Parasites often kill their hosts, and therefore act as potent agents of selection on host populations.
   		Host immune systems evolve continuously and quickly in an arms race with parasite populations that are also evolving to evade their defenses.
   		Parasites evolve faster than their hosts.
   		Social insect colonies often have reproductive queens who actively suppress the reproductive capacity of worker females in the colony.
   		All of the above.

1 points

QUESTION 19

1. Which is an example of anisogamy?

   		Male red deer have large antlers, but females do not have antlers at all.
   		Female jacanas are larger in size than the males.
   		Female fiddler crabs have two small claws, but males have one small claw and one huge claw.
   		The eggs of a female kiwi are large, but the sperm of the males are small.
   		All of the above.

1 points

QUESTION 20

1. The mating system is a big factor in determining the type and intensity of sexual selection, which in turn can determine the level of sexual dimorphism. Which of the following mating systems is associated with the lowest level of sexual dimorphism?

   		Monogamy
   		Polygyny
   		Polyandry
   		Polygynandry
   		Polyphyletic

1 points

QUESTION 21

1. The “sensory bias” model of female mate choice is a model where:

   		Females choose mates for traits that reflect better fitness and resistance to disease
   		Females choose mates for the attractiveness of their offspring
   		Females choose mates due to a pre-existing preference for particular traits
   		Females choose mates for the attractiveness of their offspring
   		Females choose mates based on their experiences with them in previous mating cycles

1 points

QUESTION 22

1. Instead of competing by size or ornamentation with dominant males in male-male competition, a “satellite male” adopts an alternate evolutionarily successful strategy, in which a male:

   		Resembles a female, and thus avoids challenge or conflict by dominant males when visiting females.
   		Adopts a smaller and more agile phenotype to slip past dominant males undetected when visiting females.
   		Adopts the appearance of a toxic/dangerous organism to fool dominant males when visting females.
   		All of the above.
   		None of the above.

1 points

QUESTION 23

1. Which of the following is not true about the “good genes” model of sexual selection in female mate choice systems?

   		This is a form of intersexual selection.
   		Requires an “honest signal” of fitness.
   		Can select for maladaptive traits.
   		Female preference must evolve before male traits.
   		Male are selected for traits that are not directly beneficial for the survival of the male.

1 points

QUESTION 24

1. Which of the following is one of the circumstances under which protoandrous sequential hermaphroditism is observed?

   		In systems where size correlates with age, when it is advantageous to be male when larger, as you can win conflict with other males in competition for access to mates, but advantageous to be female when smaller, as then while you are not competitive in conflicts, you can still continue to reproduce without challenging.
   		In systems where size correlates wit hage, when it is very advantageous to be female when larger, due to the greater number of eggs carried, but male when smaller, as large numbers of sperm can still be produced even when small.
   		When contact with other members of your species is very rare, so some flexibility in being one sex or another is very advantageous so all contacts can result in productive matings.
   		When there is a shortage of males in the environment meaning that if you can facultatively become male in this conditions, you have will have a significant reproductive advantage.
   		When environmental conditions are uncertain and or there is a strong co-evolutionary arms race with parasites, as per the “Red Queen” hypothesis.

1 points

QUESTION 25

1. The biological species concept is popular, intuitive, and well-known, but has many limitations, leading to most biologists to favor a gene-flow based species concepts today. Which of the following are limitations of the biological species concept?

   		Not applicable to fossil species
   		Not applicable to asexual organisms
   		Not applicable to species that hybridize easily
   		All of the above
   		a and b.

1 points

QUESTION 26

1. Which is the most likely order of events that could lead to allopatric speciation?

   		Geographic separation, then genetic divergence, then reproductive isolation.
   		Genetic divergence, then geographic separation, then reproductive isolation.
   		Genetic divergence, then reproductive isolation, then geographic separation.
   		Geographic separation, then reproductive isolation, then genetic divergence.
   		Reproductive isolation, then genetic divergence, then geographic separation.

1 points

QUESTION 27

1. The two fundamental components of the speciation process are:

   		Selection of traits that increase mating success rather than survival, as well as evolution of anisogamy.
   		Disruption of gene flow and evolution of reproductive isolation.
   		Inheritable variation in phenotypes and associated differential reproductive success.
   		All of the above.
   		None of the above.

1 points

QUESTION 28

1. Which of these statements about the virulence of rabbit myxoma virus is TRUE?

   		Rabbit myxoma virus needed to become less virulent so it could coexist with its rabbit hosts.
   		Directional selection favored a coevolutionary escalation where resistance evolved in rabbits and less virulence evolved in the virus.
   		Rabbit myxoma virus became less virulent over time because natural selection favored strains that did not immediately kill the rabbit hosts, enhancing the likelihood of spreading and infecting other rabbits.
   		None of the above is a true statement.
   		All of the above are true statements.

1 points

QUESTION 29

1. What condition(s) is/are necessary for the development of both antagonistic and mutualistic coevolutionary relationships?

   		Intimate pairwise interactions with one or more species.
   		The agents of selection that are relevant to the populations must evolve.
   		Frequency-dependent selection.
   		Only a and b are necessary for the development of coevolutionary relationships.
   		All of the above are necessary for the development of coevolutionary relationships.

1 points

QUESTION 30

1. If an evolutionary biologist hypothesized that a lineage of bacteria experienced a coevolutionary arms race with its hosts, what prediction(s) might she or he make about its evolutionary history?

   		That the lineage of bacteria was older than the lineage of the host.
   		That the lineage of the host was older than the lineage of bacteria.
   		That natural selection was negative frequency dependent.
   		That the patterns of speciation events of the bacteria lineage would match closely with the patterns of speciation events of the host lineage.
   		Both c and d.

1 points

QUESTION 31

1. Two or more dangerous/noxious/unpalatable/toxic species come to resemble each other with honest reinforcement of signal in:

   		Batesian mimicry
   		Mullerian mimicry
   		“Good genes” mimicry
   		All of the above
   		None of the above

1 points

QUESTION 32

1. Chimpanzee head louse species are sister to our (human) head louse. This particular observation indicates that:

   		Individual chimpanzees are just as ineffective as us in getting rid of lice.
   		Louse species are in an escalating coevolutionary arms race with primates.
   		The parent species of the both these head lice species was associated with the parent species of chimpanzee and humans, and cospeciated along with us.
   		Lice are not host-specific.
   		All of the above.

1 points

QUESTION 33

1. Endogenous Retroviruses (ERVs) are:

   		A type of transposon
   		In an evolutionary arms race with our immune system
   		The relict of an ancient retrovirus infection
   		All of the above
   		a and c

1 points

QUESTION 34

1. Genome sizes in eukaryotes:

   		Correlates with complexity, with more complex organisms always having smaller genomes and fewer protein coding genes.
   		Correlates with complexity, with more complex organisms always having larger genomes and more protein coding genes.
   		Does not correlate with complexity, and eukaryotes have highly varying quantities of protein-coding genes.
   		Does not correlate with complexity, but most eukaryotes have approximately the same quantity of protein-coding genes and greatly varying quantities of non protein-coding genes.
   		Does not correlate with complexity, but most eukaryotes have the greatly varying quantities of protein-coding genes and approximately the same quantity of non protein-coding genes.

1 points

QUESTION 35

1. Transposons may:

   		Disrupt function of genes important for the host organism functioning and life.
   		Generate genomic variation by changing gene order or chromosome structure.
   		Be activated by the host to serve important functions or even lead to novel structures and adaptations.
   		Not really serve any function or purpose for the host organism and just enhance their own transmission at the expense of other genes in the genome, even if this has no positive or a net negative effect on organismal fitness.
   		All of the above.

1 points

QUESTION 36

1. We know that the mammalian syncytin gene, which codes for the protein syncytin, which, in turn, is vital for the development of the placenta, has a viral origin because:

   		It is found in the middle of a sequence of “signature” genes characteristic of viruses in our genome.
   		We have cultivated the genes in the lab and found we could grow virus colonies from them.
   		There is no other explanation for how we acquired this gene.
   		This explains the low ratio of coding to non-coding genes, resulting in the misleading term “junk DNA”.
   		We are unable to sequence this gene without using RNA-based primers.

1 points

QUESTION 37

1. While we have ERVs in our genome that are exclusive to us, as humans, we also share ERV’s with other apes, other primates (such as monkeys), as well more distant relatives such as other mammals (e.g. hyenas). Given what you know about our relationships with other animals on the planet, what would be ranking of the age of the ERV’s in our genome (that is, the length of time the ERV’s have been part of the human genome), from oldest to the youngest?

   		Chimpanzee, hyena, monkey.
   		Chimpanzee, monkey, hyena.
   		Monkey, hyena, chimpanzee.
   		Hyena, chimpanzee, monkey.
   		Hyena, monkey, chimpanzee.

1 points

QUESTION 38

1. Consider the phylogeny of pathogens, labeled from the host in which they were sampled, shown in Handout 3.
   What seems to be the most likely source or sources of the human strains?

   		Cows to humans
   		Cows to goats to humans
   		Horses to humans
   		a and b
   		a and c

1 points

QUESTION 39

1. Consider the phylogeny of pathogens, labeled from the host in which they were sampled, shown in Handout 3.
   How many times did a human strain of the pathogen originate directly from cows?

   		0
   		1
   		2
   		3
   		4

1 points

QUESTION 40

1. Consider the phylogeny of pathogens, labeled from the host in which they were sampled, shown in Handout 3.
   How many times did a human strain of the pathogen originate directly from goats?

   		0
   		1
   		2
   		3
   		4