Ralph wanted to breed a pea plant that produced only purple flowers. He continued to breed purple-flowers producing pea plants together over six generations. The results of Ralph's artificial selection are shown above. What did artificial selection do the population of pea plants?

B

Explanation:

Number of purple flowers

Number of white flowers

1

705

224

2

792

189

3

834

102

4

889

84

5

938

21

6

952

0

Ralph wanted to breed a pea plant that produced only purple flowers. He continued to breed purple-flower producing pea plants together over six generations. The results of Ralph's selective breeding are shown above. What did the selective breeding do to the population of pea plants?

A. increased its genetic diversity

B. decreased its genetic diversity

C. caused a new species of pea plant to form

D. caused a pea plant to exhibit a new characteristic

The correct answer would be that selective breeding decreased the genetic diversity of the population of the pea plants.

The genetic diversity of a population can be viewed as the number of genes in the gene pool of the population.

With each successive generation, more purple-flowered and less white-flowered pea plants were being produced until the 6th generation when only purple-flowered pea plants were produced. The ratio of the purple color gene to that of white color kept increasing until there was no longer a white color gene in the population. Hence, the genetic diversity of the population was decreased by the selective breeding.

The correct option is B