Unit 7, Module 49 Teacher Version
Active Reading Guide
Biology for the AP® Course: Active Reading Guide
Unit 7 Evolution and Natural Selection
Module 49 Variation in Populations
Introduction
1. ___Genetic_________ variation is the raw material on which evolution acts.
49.1 Populations with low levels of genetic variation are at risk for
extinction
2. Describe why larger populations are more likely to be able to adapt to
environmental change than smaller populations.
Larger populations have more genetic variation. Populations that have more genetic
variation have more variants available. Even though some of the variants have low
fitness in a current environment, those variants may be better adapted as the
environment shifts. More genetic variation increases the odds that a population will
have some variants that enable adaptation to a new environment.
3. Most of the crops we eat are the result of (artificial or natural selection) and as a
result have lost the ability to survive and reproduce on their own. (Circle the correct
answer).
4. Describe why Cavendish bananas—the bananas you find at the grocery store—have
so little genetic diversity? In your answer include information on how they reproduce.
Cavendish bananas reproduce asexually; they must be propagated vegetatively by
farmers because they are sterile. As a result, these bananas contain virtually no genetic
diversity.
5. Describe the importance of safeguarding the genetic diversity of crops species and
their wild relatives.
Without genetic diversity, a newly evolved pathogen may be able to infect every plant
in a crop species. Maintaining wild relatives and seed banks may help preserve genetic
variants that may be immune (or able to fight off) potential future pathogens.
6. Identify two types of events that might reduce genetic diversity in a natural
population.
Morris, Castignetti, Lepri, and Relyea Biology for the AP® Course, 1e 1
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Unit 7, Module 49 Teacher Version
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Bottlenecks and the founder effect
7. Identify two stresses besides pathogens that can be particularly harmful to a
population with low genetic diversity.
Answers will vary. Drought, climate change, extreme temperatures, increased
predation
__________________________________________________________________________
Concept Check
(Answers can be found in the Teacher’s Edition and at the back of the Student Edition.)
1. Describe why populations with little genetic variation are at risk of decline or
extinction.
2. Identify a group of organisms that has very little genetic variation.
__________________________________________________________________________
49.2 Populations with high levels of genetic variation are often resilient to
environmental change
4. Most natural populations have high levels of genetic variation because of
___mutation_______ and ____recombination______ that have occurred in the past.
9. Describe why the lions in the large cat breeding facility in Oregon did not become ill
even though 60% of the cheetahs in the same facility died when a virus swept through
the facility.
The lions had gene variants (alleles) that provided protection against the viruses. The
cheetahs had experienced a genetic bottleneck at the end of the last ice age and had
less genetic diversity. The cheetahs did not have the variants that protected them from
the virus.
10. In addition to helping a population to adapt to environmental changes what else
does genetic variation allow a species to do?
Live in a range of different environmental conditions
2 Morris, Castignetti, Lepri, and Relyea Biology for the AP® Course, 1e
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Unit 7, Module 49 Teacher Version
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11. Define balancing selection.
A form of natural selection that acts to maintain two or more alleles of a given gene in
a population. Both alleles are maintained at an intermediate frequency
__________________________________________________________________________
Concept Check
(Answers can be found in the Teacher’s Edition and at the back of the Student Edition.)
3. Explain why populations with a lot of genetic variation are resilient in the face of a
changing environment.
4. Identify a group of organisms that has a lot of genetic variation.
__________________________________________________________________________
Morris, Castignetti, Lepri, and Relyea Biology for the AP® Course, 1e 3
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Unit 7, Module 49 Teacher Version
Active Reading Guide
49.3 Variants that are well adapted to one environment may not be well
adapted in another environment.
12. Complete the table with information about the genotypes that correspond to
healthy and sickle-shaped red blood cells.
Genotype Shape of Effect on individual Health (level of
hemoglobin (typical (phenotype) anemia) and
or atypical?) susceptibility to
malaria
AA Typical Red blood cells fully Healthy; no
functional anemia, but
susceptible to
malaria
SS Atypical; sickle- Sickle cell trait; Severe anemia;
shaped sickle shaped cells protection
that cannot carry against malaria
typical amount of
oxygen and block
small capillaries;
interrupt blood
supply to vital
organs and tissues
AS Mostly typical; may Mild anemia; sickle Mild anemia,
make some sickle cell trait some protection
shaped red blood Less severe effect against malaria
cells, but generally than sickle cell
does not cause anemia, but still
major health effects reduces the ability of
red blood cells to
carry oxygen
13. Based on the information in the table above, why does natural selection maintain
both the A and S alleles?
In areas with a high incidence of malaria AS individuals have a higher fitness than SS or
AA individuals. The AS individuals are protected from malaria and have only mild
anemia.
4 Morris, Castignetti, Lepri, and Relyea Biology for the AP® Course, 1e
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Unit 7, Module 49 Teacher Version
Active Reading Guide
14. Define heterozygote advantage.
The heterozygous genotype has a higher fitness than the homozygous genotype.
15. In areas where malaria is not present what genotype has the highest fitness? AA
__________________________________________________________________________
Concept Check
(Answers can be found in the Teacher’s Edition and at the back of the Student Edition.)
5. Describe why AS individuals are well adapted to regions where there is malaria.
6. Describe why AA individuals are well adapted to regions without malaria.
7. Describe why a variant that is beneficial in one environment may not be beneficial in
another.
__________________________________________________________________________
Morris, Castignetti, Lepri, and Relyea Biology for the AP® Course, 1e 5
© 2022 W.H. Freeman and Company/BFW
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