Question

A new gene is discovered that dramatically aids in the digestion of fish. you hypothesize that populations with a history of being near the shoreline would have more copies of this gene than populations found farther inland. how would you classify this genetic difference

Answer 1

The answer is copy number variation or CNV.

Copy number variations (or CNVs) is a concept that describes that sections of the genome are repeated and the number of repeats in the genome can vary between individuals of the same species. The population near the ocean would have more copies of this gene (more variations) than populations found farther of it.