6. suppose a very large population contains a rare recessive allele that causes individuals to die before reaching sexual maturity, when present in the homozygous condition. which of the following is most likely to occur? the allele will remain in the gene pool forever, but at very low frequency, because heterozygotes carry the recessive allele. the allele will slowly increase in frequency as a result of genetic drift. there is not enough information to predict what will happen to this allele. the allele will disappear from the gene pool completely after hundreds of generations. the allele will be lost from the population in 1 to 2 generations, because homozygous recessive individuals have reduced fitness.