S-B-9-1_Rabbit Natural Selection Laboratory Activity KEY
ANSWER KEY
Rabbit Natural Selection Laboratory Activity
Hypothesis: Write a hypothesis about how the frequency of dominant and recessive alleles in a
population may change over several generations.
Possible hypothesis: Over several generations, dominant alleles will become more common and
recessive alleles will become less common.
Prediction: Based on your hypothesis, write a prediction about the frequency of F alleles and f
alleles in the rabbit population after 10 generations. (Rabbits with the ff genotype in each
generation do not survive.)
Possible prediction: After 10 generations, the frequency of F alleles will be much greater than
the frequency of f alleles.
Data Table: Sample data shown below.
Generation
# of FF
# of Ff
# of ff
Number Number Total
Gene
Gene
individuals individuals individuals
of F
of f
Number Frequency Frequency
Alleles Alleles
of
of F
of f
Alleles
1
13
24
13
50
24
74
0.67
0.32
2
15
20
2
50
20
70
0.71
0.29
3
15
20
0
50
20
70
0.71
0.29
4
17
16
2
50
16
66
0.76
0.24
5
19
12
2
50
12
62
0.81
0.19
6
20
10
1
50
10
60
0.83
0.17
7
20
10
0
50
10
60
0.83
0.17
8
21
8
1
50
8
58
0.86
0.14
9
21
8
0
50
8
58
0.86
0.14
10
21
8
0
50
8
58
0.86
0.14
S-B-9-1_Rabbit Natural Selection Laboratory Activity KEY
Analysis:
1. Do your results support your hypothesis? Why or why not? Answers will vary.
2. Compare the changes in the number of F alleles with the number of f alleles over the
generations. The number of F alleles stays the same, and the number of f alleles decreases as
rabbits with the ff genotype die.
3. Compare the frequencies of the dominant allele F with the frequencies of the recessive allele
f. The frequency of the F allele increases and the frequency of the f allele decreases.
4. How could you change this activity to simulate rabbits migrating to the rabbit population?
You could add alleles for new rabbits to the bag during one of the generations.
5. How could rabbit migration affect the allele frequencies? Rabbit migration could affect the
allele frequencies, depending on the alleles of the new rabbits. If the new rabbits have more f
alleles, the frequency would go up and vice versa.
Conclusion:
Based on your results in this activity, explain how natural selection can impact the allele
frequencies of a population. The alleles of a species that are favored in the environment will
become more frequent in the species over many generations.
Graph of sample data from the data table:
Gene Frequencies Over 10 Generations
1
0.9
0.8
Allele Frequency
0.7
0.6
0.5
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
Generation
F Allele
f Allele
7
8
9
10