During a windstorm, a tree falls on the population of wildflowers shown in the figure below. Most of the flowers die (as indicated by the tombstones in the second row). The survivors go on to reproduce. What will the next generation of this wildflower population look like?
A)Half of the flowers will be gray and the other half will be white.
B)All of the flowers will be white.
C)All of the flowers will be gray.
D)Three quarters of the flowers will be gray and one-quarter will be white.

Question

During a windstorm, a tree falls on the population of wildflowers shown in the figure below. Most of the flowers die (as indicated by the tombstones in the second row). The survivors go on to reproduce. What will the next generation of this wildflower population look like? 
A)Half of the flowers will be gray and the other half will be white. 
B)All of the flowers will be white. 
C)All of the flowers will be gray. 
D)Three quarters of the flowers will be gray and one-quarter will be white.

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

Assuming that gray is the dominant allele and white is the recessive allele, the probability of a gray flower (with the genotype GG or Gg) surviving is higher than that of a white flower (with the genotype gg). Therefore, it is likely that more gray flowers survived and went on to reproduce. The next generation will have the genotype ratios of 1GG:2Gg:1gg, which simplifies to 3/4 gray and 1/4 white.

During a Windstorm, a Tree Falls on the Population of Wildflowers