38) The northern elephant seal, Mirouneg augustirestris, suffered a significant

Question

38) The northern elephant seal, Mirouneg augustirestris, suffered a significant population bottleneck in the late nineteenth century, when hunting reduced their population size to as few as 20 individuals. It has since rebounded to several tens of thousands. The related southern elephant seal, M. leonine, was not hunted as intensively. What prediction can you make about the relative levels of heterozygosity in populations of these two species? The northern elephant seal, Mirgunge angustirestis (their genes still carry the marks of this bottleneck) meaning they have much less genetic variation than a population of southern elephant seals that was not so intensely hunted. 39) Two populations experience equally severe bottlenecks, reducing each to one-tenth of its original size. One population is in the bottleneck for one generation, and the other is irn the bottleneck for five generations. You assess the heterozygosity of both populations after they have been restored to their prebottleneck size. What do you expeet to find, and why?

Explanation / Answer

Answer: The population that experienced bottleneck for five generations exhibits more homozygosity.
Explanation: Bottlenecks are an example of the founder effect. Accidental changes in allele frequencies of a small population are referred to as population bottlenecks.
If a population experiences a bottleneck for one generation, the heterozygosity in the population may still exist. But, if the population experiences bottleneck for five generations, inbreeding would establish homozygosity at several loci.

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