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Is the probability that a recessive allele gets lost during generations higher than the probability that a dominant allele gets lost?

Sagot :

Answer:

No. The probability of a dominant allele to be lost is less compared to the probability of the dominant allele.

Explanation:

The loss of alleles during the generations occurs during cases of natural selection, where individuals who have characteristics favored by the environment survive. However, natural selection acts on the phenotype of individuals and not on the genotype (where the alleles are). Thus, the probability that a phenotype caused by the recessive alleles will be lost over the generations may be greater than the probability that a phenotype caused by a dominant allele will be lost. However, the probability that this recessive allele will be lost is almost nil.

Let's look at an example: As we know, recessive alleles are only expressed in the phenotype if they are hom0zygous, that is, in pairs formed by two recessive alleles. However, heterozygous alleles (pairs formed by a recessive allele and a dominant allele) will express the phenotype determined only by the dominant allele. In this case, a population of lizards that have the dominant allele "A", for green lizards and recessive allele "b", for red lizards, will present individuals with the "AA" (green), "Ab"  (green color) and "bb" (red color) allele pairs. If these lizards lived in the grass, natural selection would allow only green lizards to survive, as they would not be seen by predators. The red lizards would die and would not pass on the "bb" genotype for the next generations, but the recessive "b" allele would continue to be passed on to the next generations because it is part of the individuals with the "Ab" genotype that survived. If the grass were red, natural selection would allow the red lizards to survive, as they would not be seen by predators. Likewise, the recessive allele "b" would be passed on to the next generation, but the same would not happen with the dominate allele "A", which would be lost.