Question

a flower has two alleles for petal color, yellow and pink. the yellow petal color is typically found in a greater frequency than the pink petal color within a population of flowers in the field. after one season, an observer notices that the field of flowers has predominantly pink flowers. which of these conditions would be an appropriate basis for the change if the evolution was determined to be due to random events? select all that apply. a mutation introducing new alleles b genetic drift due to a bottleneck event c natural selection due to selective pressures d artificial selection due to human intervention e gene flow as pollen from a distant source brings new alleles into the population

Explanation:

• Option A: Mutations are random changes. A new allele from mutation could alter the allele frequency randomly, potentially leading to more pink flowers.
• Option B: A bottleneck event (a type of genetic drift) is a random reduction in population size. The surviving population may have a random shift in allele frequencies, so pink could become predominant randomly.
• Option C: Natural selection is non - random as it depends on selective pressures (organisms with favorable traits survive better). So it's not due to random events.
• Option D: Artificial selection is driven by human choice (non - random) to select for certain traits.
• Option E: Gene flow from a distant source bringing new alleles is a random event (the arrival of pollen is random). New alleles could change the frequency to favor pink randomly.

Answer:

A. mutation introducing new alleles
B. genetic drift due to a bottleneck event
E. gene flow as pollen from a distant source brings new alleles into the population