Final answer:
Harmful mutations in an organism's DNA can hinder its ability to survive and reproduce. This can occur through dominant lethal alleles, which may not show symptoms until after reproductive age, or recessive lethal inheritance patterns, which may prevent offspring from surviving to reproductive age.
Step-by-step explanation:
The correct answer to this question is A. harmful mutation. Mutations in an individual organism's DNA can manifest in various ways, with some being advantageous, neutral, or harmful.
Harmful mutations
negatively affect an individual's likelihood of survival and ability to reproduce. An example is
dominant lethal alleles
, such as the allele for Huntington's disease, which is detrimental but doesn't often show symptoms until after reproductive age. Such alleles can be passed to offspring before the parent shows signs of the disease. Another example of harmful mutations includes
recessive lethal inheritance
patterns such as Tay-Sachs disease, where the offspring inherit a faulty allele from both carrier parents and are unlikely to survive to reproductive age.
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