B. Gene duplication is non-Mendelian because gene frequency is being altered not by intergenerational changes, e.g., selection and migration, but within a generation. It is evolutionarily important because it is considered one of the most important ways that new gene functions can arise. Duplications allows a functional copy of the old version of the gene to be retained and provides an extra copy that can mutate and possibly evolve a new function. If most mutations are introduced during replication of the DNA and the organism has sequestration of its germline, then DNA replication is a function of generation time, and hence so would the neutral mutation rate. For a population to be maintained over time it must produce enough offspring to replace each individual in the current generation.
Selection reduces the number of individuals available to maintain the population.
So the cost of selection is the death and lowered fecundity caused by selection. Justify your conclusion. Constant selection pressure on a quantitative trait should reduce the heritability of the trait over time because selection will act to remove genetic variation. This is true whether selection is directional or stabilizing because both forms of selection lead to homozygosity at loci for the trait. Give and explain the three steps that are generally taken to determine whether a particular character trait is an adaptation.