Study Questions - Sources of Variation
1) List four levels at which changes to the genome can occur.
2) Why is polyploidy rarer in vertebrates than plants? Give two reasons.
3) Why are triploids typically sterile? How is this barrier overcome in triploid animal species?
4) Describe how polyploidy can occur in a hermaphroditic species as a consequence of an error in mitosis.
5) How does allopolyploidy typically occur? Describe one real example.
6) Describe how non-disjunction leads to aneuploidy.
7) Provide two reasons why gene duplication might be beneficial.
8) What is a gene family?
9) Show how homologs pair after one has undergone an inversion, and show the products of a cross-over event within the inversion region. What effect does an inversion have on the pattern of heredity of the alleles in this region? Why is this evolutionarily important?
10) Polyploidy can also be called "whole genome duplication". What beneficial effects are possible? What evidence exists that this process has been evolutionarily important?