A population of 1,000 birds exists on a small Pacific island. Some of the birds are yellow, a characteristic determined by a recessive allele. The others are green, a characteristic determined by a dominant allele. A hurricane on the island kills most of the birds from this population. Only 10 remain, and those birds all have yellow feathers. Which of the following statements is true?
A) Assuming that no new birds come to the island and no mutations occur, future generations of this population will contain both green and yellow birds.
B) The hurricane has caused a population bottleneck and a loss of genetic diversity.
C) This situation illustrates the effect of a mutation event.
D) The 10 remaining birds will mate only with each other, and this will contribute to gene flow in the population.

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The hurricane caused a population bottleneck, which means that a small number of individuals survived and contributed to the gene pool of the next generation. This can result in a loss of genetic diversity, as some alleles may not be represented in the surviving population. Since all of the birds that survived have yellow feathers, this suggests that the green allele was lost during the hurricane. Assuming no new birds come to the island and no mutations occur, future generations of this population will likely only contain yellow birds, as the recessive allele is now fixed in the population.

A Population of 1,000 Birds Exists on a Small Pacific