The graph shows the relationship between the number of surviving gray wolf pups in a litter and the inbreeding coefficient of those pups. What do these data reveal about the types of alleles present in this population?
A) There are recessive deleterious alleles present.
B) The population is in Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium.
C) The rate of mutation is very high.
D) Mating is nonrandom with respect to genotype.

Question

The graph shows the relationship between the number of surviving gray wolf pups in a litter and the inbreeding coefficient of those pups. What do these data reveal about the types of alleles present in this population? 
A) There are recessive deleterious alleles present. 
B) The population is in Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium. 
C) The rate of mutation is very high. 
D) Mating is nonrandom with respect to genotype.

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The negative correlation between the number of surviving pups and the inbreeding coefficient suggests that there are deleterious recessive alleles present in the population. Inbreeding increases the likelihood that homozygous individuals will be produced, which increases the expression of recessive deleterious alleles. Therefore, the fact that more pups die as inbreeding increases indicates the presence of such alleles. Additionally, the other options (B, C, D) are not supported by the information provided in the graph.

The Graph Shows the Relationship Between the Number of Surviving