Question

The main factor that leads to Founder effect in a population is ________.

• A. \( \text{Isolation} \)
• B. \( \text{Speciation} \)
• C. \( \text{Genetic Drift} \)
• D. \( \text{Recombination} \)

Hint:

Genetic drift is like "luck": it doesn't matter how "fit" the allele is; it survives or dies out by pure statistical chance in small groups.

Answer 1

The Correct Option is C

Concept: Evolutionary mechanisms describe how allele frequencies in a population change over time.
• Genetic drift is the change in the frequency of an existing gene variant in a population due to random sampling of organisms.
• It has a much stronger effect in smaller populations.

Step 1: Understanding the Founder Effect.
The Founder Effect occurs when a small group of individuals breaks off from a larger population to establish a new colony. This new "founder" group carries only a small fraction of the original population's genetic variation.

Step 2: Connecting to Genetic Drift.
Because the new population is small, random chance plays a massive role in which alleles survive. This extreme form of random sampling is a classic example of Genetic Drift. The resulting population may be genetically very different from the parent population. Final Answer: The main evolutionary factor behind the Founder effect is Genetic Drift.