Question Video: Contrasting Reproduction of Rabbits and Yeast | Nagwa Question Video: Contrasting Reproduction of Rabbits and Yeast | Nagwa

Question Video: Contrasting Reproduction of Rabbits and Yeast Biology • Third Year of Secondary School

Organisms can reproduce sexually or asexually. Which of the following could threaten the continuity of a population of rabbits but not a population of yeast? [A] There is a sudden change in the environment. [B] There is a disease present within the population. [C] Members of a species are isolated from each other. [D] There are more breeding sites than there are breeding pairs. [E] There is a decrease in nutrient availability.

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Video Transcript

Organisms can reproduce sexually or asexually. Which of the following could threaten the continuity of a population of rabbits but not a population of yeast? (A) There is a sudden change in the environment. (B) There is a disease present within the population. (C) Members of a species are isolated from each other. (D) There are more breeding sites than there are breeding pairs. Or (E) there is a decrease in nutrient availability.

This question is asking us to figure out which of the factors mentioned in the answer options could threaten a population of rabbits but not a population of yeast. It mentions the two types of reproduction, sexual reproduction and asexual reproduction. Let’s explore what these key terms mean and how they might affect populations of rabbits and yeast so that we can work out the correct answer.

Sexual reproduction is a method of producing offspring whereby two gametes that are usually produced by two parents fuse in a process called fertilization. This tends to produce a zygote, which can then develop, grow, and differentiate into a fully formed organism. As sexual reproduction usually involves two parents combining their genetic material, it produces offspring with a fairly high genetic variation. This provides populations that utilize this form of reproduction with resilience to environmental changes. However, sexual reproduction is fairly slow. And as it usually requires two parents, these two organisms must be located fairly close together. Rabbits are examples of organisms that can only reproduce through sexual reproduction.

Asexual reproduction only involves one parent. The offspring produced through asexual reproduction are genetically identical. While this process is much faster than sexual reproduction, partly as it does not require an organism to find a mate to reproduce with, as offspring are identical, genetic variation is fairly low.

Yeast are single-celled fungi which can reproduce either sexually or asexually. This is really useful as if individual yeast cells are isolated from each other, they will still be able to reproduce asexually. It also means that if there’s a sudden change in the environment or a new disease is introduced to the population, the yeast cells can reproduce sexually. This acts to increase the genetic variation in their offspring and hopefully introduce new useful traits to aid survival in these changing conditions.

However, if no rabbits are able to access mates to reproduce with, sexual reproduction will not be able to occur. So the rabbits will not be able to reproduce at all. This could definitely threaten the continuity of a population of rabbits. This means that we’ve found the correct answer to this question. The scenario that could threaten the continuity of the population of rabbits but not a population of yeast is (C). Members of a species are isolated from each other.

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