Question

a population of ants on a median strip has 12 different alleles, a through l, of a particular gene. a drunk driver plows across the median strip, destroying most of the median strip and 90% of the ants. the surviving ants are homozygous for allele h. which statement is not true?

• all frequencies except h are reduced to zero.
• the frequency of alleles a through l remains the same.
• this event is an example of a bottleneck effect.
• h frequency is now 1.0.

Explanation:

• The surviving ants are homozygous for H, so only allele H exists in the population. Thus, other alleles' frequencies drop to 0 (A is true).
• A sudden population reduction (90% loss) with surviving individuals having limited genetic variation is a bottleneck effect (C is true).
• Since only H is present, its frequency is 1.0 (D is true).
• Allele frequencies change drastically (only H remains), so B is false.

Answer:

B. The frequency of alleles A through L remains the same.