Breeding Bunnies

1.     My hypothesis stated the gene pool of the bunny population would shift and eventually the dominant genes would be the only one present.

2.     The results of the lab confirm my hypothesis, since at the end of five generations; the dominant allele was the only one remaining.

3.     At the beginning of the lab, the number of alleles for the dominant characteristic equaled the number of alleles for the recessive characteristic. In five generations, all the bunnies with recessive alleles died, leaving only the bunnies with the alleles of the dominant characteristic.

4.     Since the initial number for each allele was equal, the gene frequency of both dominant and recessive alleles was 0.5. In the next two generations, the frequency of the dominant allele increased by 0.2, meaning that the gene frequency for the recessive allele decreased by 0.2. In the fifth generation the gene frequency of the dominant allele was 1 while the other 0.

5.      Emigration and immigration affect the gene frequency of F and f  by decreasing and increasing respectively the number of alleles and therefore affecting the rate of the shift. Once there is a great amount of emigration, the size of the population decreases, and the number of alleles also chances, hence the gene pool shift occurs in a fast manner. If there is immigration, the population increases and these new members add to the gene pool, decreasing the rate of the shift. This may be simulated in the activity by adding beans (which represent alleles) and removing beans from the sample.

6.     The same trend occurred to the other group’s sample, but instead of having the dominant allele as the only one remaining, they had the recessive allele. This was due to the different circumstances in which the bunnies live in. In my activity, since they lived higher up in the mountain, the ones with thick fur (represented by FF) survived better since it was colder, whereas the other bunnies lived at the bottom where it is warmer and do not need thick fur, represented by ff.

7.     The results of this simulation are an example of evolution because of the shift in the gene pool. Since the bunnies migrated, they had to adapt to the new climate in order to survive. By that the alleles which were best suited for each new environment were the ones that remained after several generations, now differentiating the bunnies from the top of the mountain, to the ones at the bottom.