The Amish population who migrated from Europe to the United States had very few individuals in their population. Additionally, their gene pool shows very few alleles due to inbreeding. A genetic trait called polydactyly (having six fingers), which is rare in other populations, is common amongst them. What kind of evolutionary effect is exhibited in this example?
A. Mutation
B. Natural selection
C. Founder effect
A. Mutation
B. Natural selection
C. Founder effect
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C. Founder effect
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Due to inbreeding and the lack of adaptive qualities in the genetic trait known as polydactyly, we can safely cross out choice B -- natural selection.
Being that this trait is common in their gene pool, we can also rule out choice A -- mutation -- as mutations are usually random and would not occur abundantly at once within a single community except in response to a specific stimuli.
The founder effect is defined specifically as the loss of genetic variation that occurs when a new population is established by a very small number of individuals from a larger population, resulting in a lot of inbreeding that could render the new population both genetically & phenotypically different from the parent population from which it came.
Answer: C
Being that this trait is common in their gene pool, we can also rule out choice A -- mutation -- as mutations are usually random and would not occur abundantly at once within a single community except in response to a specific stimuli.
The founder effect is defined specifically as the loss of genetic variation that occurs when a new population is established by a very small number of individuals from a larger population, resulting in a lot of inbreeding that could render the new population both genetically & phenotypically different from the parent population from which it came.
Answer: C
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Genetic drift.