UNIVERSITY OF CAPE COAST

COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURE AND NATURAL SCIENCES

SCHOOL OF BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
DEPARTMENT OF CONSERVATION BIOLOGY AND ENTOMOLOGY
END OF SECOND SEMESTER EXAMINATIONS 2021/2022

BIO 208: POPULATION GENETICS AND EVOLUTION (3 CREDITS)

Answer all questions in sections A and B, and two from section C.

(Illustrate your answers with diagrams where necessary)

TIME ALLOWED: 2 HOURS

SECTION A ( 18 MARKS)
Answer all questions

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1. Which of the following statements is true about the
type of natural selection shown in the figure below?
A. It is a disruptive selection
B. It is a stabilizing selection
C. The intermediates are selected for
D. The extreme phenotypes are selected against
E. The intermediate phenotypes are the fittest
2. A 20-year-old man has been diagnosed with
Marfan syndrome. Examination revealed a
developmental disorder of connective tissue and eye
lens structure, abnormalities of the cardiovascular
system and arachnodactylia. What genetic
phenomenon is exhibited by the defect?
A. Codominance
B. Epistasis
C. Incomplete dominance
D. Multiple allelism
E. Pleiotropy
3. A new virus killed most of the Colobus monkeys in
the Ankasa Forest, dropping the population from
9800 to 400. To help preserve the species, a team of
Conservation Biologists caught 10 Colobus
monkeys and used them to start a new population in
the Kakum Forest. Which of the following factors
would most likely have the least impact on this new
population?
A. bottleneck effect
B. founder effect
C. genetic drift
D. genetic variability
E. random mating
4. Which of the following statements about population
genetics is false?
A. Evolution by natural selection works best on a
population with a variation.
B. Inbreeding increases the proportion of
homozygous individuals in a population.
C. Mutations tend to have little effect on the allele
frequency in a population.
D. The theory stating that allelic frequencies remain
the same over generations was first proposed by
Haldane, Fisher and Wright.
E. In relation to natural selection, evolution is the
outcome.
5. The geographical structuring of the Anopheles
gambiae population will result in …
A. cessation of genetic drift, mutation and selection
B. fixation of the heterozygotes in the population
C. increase heterozygosity of a population
D. maintenance of genetic variability from generation
to generation
E. the violation of Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium
The graph below shows the frequency curves of the
three different genotypes for a locus at Hardy-
Weinberg equilibrium across all possible allelic
frequencies. Use the graph to answer questions 6 -
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6. Which of the letter indicates fixation of allele A?
A. U
B. V
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 C. Y D. Genetic drift usually results in adaptation to
D. X the environment.
E. Z E. Its effect is most apparent in large populations

7.What is the frequency of Aa when p is 0.6? 12. In a population of 1000 crocodiles in Paga, 500
A.0.25 have RR, 300 have Rr, and 200 have rr. What are
B.0.26 the allelic frequencies of R and r in the
population?
C.0.36
A. f(R) = 0.65 and f(r) = 0.35
D.0.48 B. f(R) = 0.50 and f(r) = 0.50
E.0.72 C. f(R) = 0.70 and f(r) = 0.30
D. f(R) = 0.75 and f(r) = 0.25
In a kob population (comprising 2000 individuals) in E. f(R) = 0.80 and f(r) = 0.20
Mole National Park, brown fur is dominant (BB) 13.A 1:2:1 phenotypic ratio in the second filial generation
over white fur (bb). 36% of the kobs have white fur of a monohybrid cross is a sign of …
(bb), and the population follows the HWE. Use this A. complete dominance.
information to answer questions 8 – 10 B. incomplete dominance.
C. Pleiotropy
8. What is the frequency of the dominant allele (B)? D. multiple alleles.
A. 0.24 E. polygenic inheritance.
B. 0.40
C. 0.48
14. Which of the following statements is true about
D. 0.60
sickle-cell anaemia trait in humans?
E. 0.64
A. It is an abnormality of the white blood cell due to the
mutation in the haemoglobin
9. What is the frequency of the heterozygotes?
A. 0.24 B.The trait exhibits codominance
B. 0.64 C.In non-malarial regions, heterozygotes have greater
C. 0.40 fitness than homozygous individuals
D. 0.48 D.A couple who are both carriers of the trait has a 50%
E. 0.60 chance of having a sickler child
E.The trait shows balancing selection
10. What is the number of individual kobs with
homozygous dominant brown fur? 15. Which of the following is false about continuous
A. 320 variation?
B. 480 A. Intelligent quotient (IQ) is an example
C. 960 B. They are never influenced by the environment
C. There are intermediates
D. 1200
D. They are usually controlled by polygenic inheritance
E. 1600 E. In population, they have two extremities that are of
low frequency
11. Which of the following statement is false about
genetic drift?
A. It is a purely random process 16.Which of the following will increase the genetic
B. It increases genetic variation variability of a cat population in the UCC forest?
A. Decreased the size of the cat population
C. The bottleneck effect, founder effect and
B. Decreased migration of the cats
Wahlund effect are types of genetic drift C. Random mating among the individual cats
D. New mutations in some of the cats
E. Positive assortative mating among individuals
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 18. A baobab plant population is found in Damango, an
17.Fleeming Jenkins opposed Darwin’s natural selection area in northern Ghana that is becoming drier. The
and argued that a sexually reproducing population will average surface area of the baobab leaves has been
become phenotypically homogenous in just a few decreasing from generation to generation. This trend is an
generations. Jenkins’ argument was based on the … example of …
A. law of independent assortment A.genetic drift
B. principle of complete dominance B.directional selection
C. theory of the survival of the fittest C.gene flow
D. theory of inheritance of acquired character. D.a panmixia
E. theory of blending inheritance E.disruptive selection

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 SECTION B ( 12 MARKS)
Answer All questions

19. Which philosopher attributed the origin and variation of life form to the wisdom of
God being manifested? (1 mark)

20. Why is the heritability of traits important in the evolution of populations? (1 mark)

21. State Lamarck’s theory of transmutation of species. (2 marks)

22. Briefly explain the tectonic plate theory in species distribution. (2 marks)

23. Which mode of natural selection favours the selection of normal blood pressure
in humans? (1 mark)

24. Name three species of pre-man. (3 marks)

SECTION C (30 MARKS)

Answer any two questions
25. (a) State each of the theories listed i – iii and briefly explain one shortfall of each.
i. Gradualism
ii. Natural selection
iii. Catastrophism (6 marks)

(b) Outline Darwin’s postulates and explain how to test any of the postulates on variations in the
populations of an organism. (6 marks)

(c) Copy and complete the phylogenetic tree of the evolution of man. (3 marks)

26. (a) Describe briefly four genetic conditions/processes that may result in non-random mating in a sexually
producing population. (8 marks)

(b) A population of cats can be either black or white, the black allele, B, has complete dominance over the
white allele, b. Given a population of 1000 cats, 840 are black and 160 are white. Assuming the cat
population follows Hardy-Weinberg Equilibrium, calculate

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 (i) the allelic frequencies. (7 marks)
(ii) the frequencies of each genotype (BB, Bb and bb)
(iii) the number of individuals per genotype

27.(a) Describe briefly five main conditions of the Hardy-Weinberg Equilibrium. (5 marks)

(b) In a population of 1000 cattle egrets in Elmina, the beak colour exhibits incomplete dominance. The
numbers of individual phenotypes and genotypes are shown in Table 1 below. With detailed calculations
and the chi-square Table 2, determine whether the population follows Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium or not.
Use the alpha level of 5%. (10 marks)