As the background experimental evolution study done withAnolis carolensis lizards, which are native to thesoutheastern United States and islands in the Atlantic Ocean.Researchers focused on one gene for eye color with two possiblealleles, A and a. They determined in previousstudies that eye color does not impact lizard fitness in thewild.These researchers identified 4 islands in the Caribbean Seathat did not have any Anolis lizards, but that did havesuitable habitat for the A. carolensis species. Theyplaced 3 males and 3 females on each island. All of the lizardsused in the study were Aa heterozygotes at this eye colorlocus. Therefore, each population started with each allele at afrequency of 0.5.
They allowed the lizards to mate and returned to the island eachyear to record the genotype and allele frequencies in the offspringpopulations. They recorded this data for 4 generations.
Question: Assume that each generation, all lizards survive andeach lizard finds a mate. Focusing on the population labeled ‘A’,explain how random gamete sampling could have produced the observedpattern of allele frequency change across generations. Be specificabout the biological mechanism causing change. (3-4 sentences)
The graph shows how the a allele changed in each populationacross generations.
