Which of the following is most likely to create genetic variation in a population?

Question

BlackTom AI · Accepted Answer

To tackle the question, let's consider how genetic variation arises in a population and which cellular processes can introduce heritable changes.
Option 1: RNA polymerase errors during transcription. While transcription errors can alter the mRNA and, consequently, the proteína sequence in a given generation, these changes are not reflected in the organism's DNA and are not passed to offspring. Thus, they do not contribute to heritable genetic variation.
Option 2: Helicase failure to unwind DNA during DNA replication. If helicase fails to unwind properly, replication may be impaired or mismanaged, but this scenario does not reliably introduce heritable variation. It more likely leads to replication blocks or cell death rather than consistent, heritable mutations across a population.
Option 3: DNA polymerase errors during replication. During DNA replication, the DNA polymerase can incorporate incorrect nucleotides, producing mutations in the genome. If these mutations are not corrected (or are repaired imperfectly), they become heritable genetic variation passed to daughter cells and, over generations, through a population.
Option 4: Misincorporation of amino acids by tRNA during translation. This affects the protein sequence in the current cell but does not alter the underlying DNA sequence, so these changes are not inherited by offspring and thus do not generate genetic variation in the population.
In summary, only changes arising at the DNA level during replication (option 3) create heritable variation, whereas the other options involve processes that either do not alter DNA or do not pass changes to offspring.

APBIO142-030 with labs S19 - CollegeBoard* AP Exam Prep: Multiple Choice

Which of the following is most likely to create genetic variation in a population?

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