Question

Heterozygote advantage refers to the tendency for heterozygous individuals to have better fitness than homozygous individuals. This higher fitness results in less genetic variation in the population

a) true
b) false

Answer 1

b) false

Step-by-step explanation:

In heterozygote advantage, heterozygous organisms are preferred over their homozygous counterparts. They usually have some kind of advantage due to which their survival rate is more. For example: sickle cell heterozygotes have better fitness than both normal individuals and sickle cell anaemics during malaria.

Heterozygote advantage results in more genetic variation in population because to maintain heterozygosity, both the alleles need to be present in the population. One allele is not favoured over other and hence individuals produce both types of alleles and genetic variation is maintained in population.