True or false? Gene flow can either increase or decrease the average fitness of a population. Explain.

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Hi everyone. Here's our next question. It says when gene flow into a population introduces a beneficial, alil population fitness blank. Whereas when gene flow introduces a deleterious allele population fitness blank. So let's recall that fitness. We talk about population fitness equals the ability of an organism to survive and reproduce. So let's imagine now gene flow that versus the transfer of whales from one population to another. When we have this population and we have a beneficial value. Well, in this case beneficial would mean giving the organism an advantage, making it more likely to be able to survive to reproduce. So beneficial al is being introduced is going to increase fitness because those alleles will make it more likely that that organism and that more of those organisms will survive and reproduce. If a deleterious allele gets introduced, well, again, the definition of a deleterious allele would be one that makes an individual less likely to survive or reproduce. So introduce one of these alleles into a population that will decrease overall fitness because individuals that inherit the Salil are less likely to survive and reproduce. So let's look for our answer choices that show the first blank as increase and the second bank of the decrease. When we look through our answer choices, we see that choice A as increases and then decreases. So when gene flow into a population introduces a beneficial alil population fitness choice A increases. Whereas when gene flow introduces a deleterious allele population fitness decreases choice A. Is our correct answer here. See you in the next video

True or false? Gene flow can either increase or decrease the average fitness of a population. Explain.

Verified Solution

Key Concepts

Gene Flow

Average Fitness

Impact of Gene Flow on Fitness