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Where variation comes from

1.[3p]

Why does sequencing a mother, a father and their child give a cleaner mutation rate than counting mutant colonies?

Correct
The answer is: Counting mutants measures mutations that survived selection, while trios count them before selection acts
The answer is: Counting mutants measures mutations that survived selection, while trios count them before selection acts
The answer is: Counting mutants measures mutations that survived selection, while trios count them before selection acts

2.[2p]

A child carries about 63 new mutations and coding exons are about 1.5 per cent of the genome. How many new mutations fall in coding sequence?

CorrectNot quite: 0.94

3.[2p]

Most new mutations in a human child come from the father, and the number rises with his age.

Correct
The answer is: True

4.[3p]

With a per-base rate of 2.1×10-10 and a genome of 4.6×106 bases, how many cells out of a million acquire a mutation each generation?

CorrectNot quite: 966

5.[3p]

What do the two hypotheses predict for the fluctuation test, and what decides between them?

Correct
The answer is: Induction predicts variance equal to the mean, mutation predicts variance far above it, so the scatter decides
The answer is: Induction predicts variance equal to the mean, mutation predicts variance far above it, so the scatter decides
The answer is: Induction predicts variance equal to the mean, mutation predicts variance far above it, so the scatter decides

6.[3p]

Why are the samples drawn from one bulk culture essential to Luria and Delbrück's argument?

Correct
The answer is: They show that plating and counting are not themselves overdispersed, so the excess variance is biology
The answer is: They show that plating and counting are not themselves overdispersed, so the excess variance is biology
The answer is: They show that plating and counting are not themselves overdispersed, so the excess variance is biology

7.[3p]

Which of these are sources of new variation, as this lesson uses the term?

Select all that apply

Correct
Correct
Correct
The answer is: Point mutation, which modifies an existing gene, Gene duplication, which frees a spare copy to change, Recombination, which makes new combinations of existing alleles

8.[3p]

An infection holds 1011 bacteria and a resistance mutation arises at 10-8 per cell. How many resistant cells are present before treatment starts?

CorrectNot quite: 1000

9.[2p]

Match each example to what it illustrates.

  • Primate colour vision

  • Antifreeze in Antarctic fish

  • The globin cluster

  • The Lederberg replica plate

  • resistant cells traced to a plate never exposed

  • an opsin gene duplicated and the copies diverged

  • a trypsinogen gene modified into a new function

  • one ancestral gene copied and recopied

Show the answer

Primate colour vision: an opsin gene duplicated and the copies diverged Antifreeze in Antarctic fish: a trypsinogen gene modified into a new function The globin cluster: one ancestral gene copied and recopied The Lederberg replica plate: resistant cells traced to a plate never exposed