Fig. 1 shows a greenhouse bench containing young tomato plants. A gardener notices that whitefly insects feed from the leaf surface and can transmit plant d...
Question 1 Report
Fig. 1 shows a greenhouse bench containing young tomato plants. A gardener notices that whitefly insects feed from the leaf surface and can transmit plant disease. Some tomato plants have leaves with dense hairs, making it harder for whiteflies to settle and feed. Other plants have smoother leaves. The gardener saves seeds only from healthy plants with hairy leaves, then grows their offspring next season. This is artificial selection, because the gardener chooses the parent plants. In the wild, whitefly feeding could instead act as a natural selection pressure.
(a) Identify the tomato leaf characteristic likely to reduce whitefly feeding. [1]
(b) Explain one difference between artificial selection and natural selection in this situation. [2]
(c) Use the information to suggest why hairy-leaved plants may produce more seeds in the wild. [1]
(d) Which term describes offspring receiving alleles from their parent plants? [1]
Answer Details
(a) Dense / hairy leaves [1] (b) Artificial selection: gardener chooses parent plants [1]; natural selection: environmental pressure such as whitefly feeding determines which plants survive and reproduce [1] (c) They suffer less feeding / disease and so survive to make more seeds [1] (d) Inheritance [1]
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