Question

From the Luria-Delbruck fluctuation test, when would mutations arise in yeast cells to allow for survival in the presence of toxic levels of hydrogen peroxide?

      
a: Mutations are adaptive and would have appeared immediately in response to the hydrogen peroxide.

       
b: Mutations are random and would have appeared prior to being exposed to hydrogen peroxide.

       
c: Mutations are adaptive and would have formed prior to being exposed to hydrogen peroxide.

       
d: Mutations are adaptive and would have appeared after most of the cells died in the presence of hydrogen peroxide.

       
e: Mutations are random but would not have formed until after the hydrogen peroxide was introduced.

Answer 1

Option B is correct

Salvador Luria and Max Delbrück designed an experiment also known as the fluctuation test. This experiment was performed to prove that the mutations are random and are already present in a population. This experiment debunk the concept that mutations are adaptive in nature.
When yeast cells are exposed to the harmful level of the hydrogen peroxide then the already present mutations before the hydrogen peroxide exposure might help in surviving few cells.