In four o’clock plants, there are three phenotypes for flower color, but only two alleles. The table shows both the expected and observed numbers of plants of each flower color in a population of 1,000. The graph shows this:

Phenotypes Number Expected Number observed

Red Flowers: 105 173

Pink flowers: 484 343

White flowers: 411 484

Which statement best explains the results in the table?

1. The population is in equilibrium because the total number of plants expected and observed was about the same.

2. The population evolved because the frequency of the alleles and the genotypes changed.

3. The frequency of the alleles and genotypes in the population changed because of gene flow.

4. The observed frequency of the phenotypes is different from the expected frequency because some alleles mutated.

That you

if the type of the food available changes, then the frequency of beak types will change, because birds with beaks more suited to the available food will be more successful over time.

"1. it should be, it has been for about 20 years, and it's really not much different in the end than breeding animals to have particular traits. there are always concerns about genetically engineered animals/plants affecting the environment in unexpected negative ways, but i can't think of an example where the fears didn't turn out to be baseless.  

first, as you point out, it would be a great advance in pharmacology, to be able to tailor drugs and their doses to me. the pros involve better medical treatment. the cons involve privacy issues like insurance companies denying coverage to people with genetic risk factors. looking at dna markers wouldn't affect the frequency of genetic diseases, but it would allow detection of them earlier. and ok, actually i suppose that if people used this information to avoid having children with genetic diseases, some might decrease in frequency."