Imagine a moth with two forms of a gene for color. One form of the gene gives th
ID: 175492 • Letter: I
Question
Imagine a moth with two forms of a gene for color. One form of the gene gives the moth a light color; the other form gives it a dark color. This moth rests on the bark of a tree that is covered by light-colored lichens. Due to environmental pollution, the lichens are killed, leaving the bark dark-colored. In response, the moth switches from a light to dark color exterior. Describe in your own words the two genetic processes central in the conversation of the genetic information (genotype) into the observable phenotype of the resulting moth.Explanation / Answer
The moths has the allele which codes for dark color is dominant, whereas light color allele is recessive, initially before pollution, homozygous genotype will leads to white moths, these were better camouflaged than dark color moth, due to which there are killed by they prey (birds). These white color has advantage, however after pollution and death of lichens has changed the situation drastically leading to spotting of these homozygous moth (white color) easily compared to dark color moth. These caused natural selection to take effect and white color moth has decreased and proportion of dark color moth has increased drastically.