Question

You observe a Ka/Ks ratio of 13.897 for a gene that leads to higher survival rates in the presence of a pathogen. What can you conclude from this observation?

A. Purifying selection has driven Ka to be less than Ks, so that variation for this gene is detrimental in the presence of the pathogen.

B. Variation at this gene has no fitness consequence.

C. Nothing, since genes have no relationship to survival.

D. Positive selection has driven Ka to be larger than Ks, so that variation for this gene confers some level of benefit in the presence of the pathogen.

Answer 1

Answer:C

Genes have no relationship to survival, because the presence some pathogens would be beneficial to exchange their metabolic pathways.

According to the researchers, it had proved already that genes does not have any impact on survival rate.

Example: one of the bacterial pathogen species (Nardonella) shedding of all its DNA, except DNA which is useful for synthesis and building pathways for amino acids & proteins etc. The bacteria derive all metabolic requirements from weevil in which they live, in turn it provides building block for the weevil. In this way the survival continues.

Combination of both positive and purify selection is beneficial and valve should be 1. Gene has fitness consequences.

Note: The provided answer is as per my knowledge may be or may not be 100% correct, but definitely relevant to your question thank you so much.