Question

How does genetic variation alter characteristics of populations?

Answer 1

Answer. Variations in a population can be brought up by the sexual reproduction which is the major source of genetic variation. Mutation is also a type of genetic variation.

These genetic variations alter the characteristics of a population by introducing new alleles. The natural selection of these alleles over a period of time will lead to the change in characteristics of a population.

The population that has undergone greater genetic variation has greater chance to bear significant environmental challenges like from predators, pests, disease, competition etc.

The change in a plant if it transforms from diploid to polyploid variety is significant. The polyploid varieties are generally high yielding. For this reason, artificial variations are introduced into seeds by gamma irradiation.