A scientist observes a population of cheetahs on the plains in southern Africa and noticed that cheetahs have very little genetic variation. The scientists claims that the cheetahs are susceptible to extinction as a result of climate change. What is the name of the effect the scientist observed and why is it a concern
? (1 point)
• Disaster effect, because the cheetahs have mutated to produce ineffective proteins
• Substitution mutation, because the these mutations cannot be passed to offspring
Bottleneck effect, because environmental stresses affecting one cheetah could affect them all
Frameshift mutation, because it only produces ineffective proteins
Bottleneck effect, because environmental stresses affecting one cheetah could affect them all.
The bottleneck effect refers to a sudden decrease in the size of a population, resulting in a significant loss of genetic diversity. In this case, the scientist observed that the cheetah population has very little genetic variation. This lack of variation makes the cheetahs more vulnerable to extinction because if an environmental stress or change occurs that affects one cheetah, it is likely to affect the entire population. Without genetic diversity, the population lacks the ability to adapt and survive in changing environmental conditions. Therefore, the bottleneck effect observed by the scientist is a concern for the susceptibility of the cheetahs to extinction due to climate change.