2b: Fitness

Question 1

What is fitness

Answer 1

• an indication of an individual’s ability to be successful at surviving and reproducing
• a measure of the tendency of some organisms to produce more surviving offspring than competing members of the same species

Question 2

What does fitness refers to

Answer 2

It refers to the contribution made to the gene pool of the next generation by individual genotypes

Question 3

Absolute fitness definition

Answer 3

Absolute fitness is the ratio between the frequency of individuals of a particular genotype after selection, to those before selection

Question 4

absolute fitness formula

Answer 4

frequency of a particular genotype after selection

Over

frequency of a particular genotype before selection

Question 5

What do the absolute fitness calculations mean

Answer 5

If the absolute fitness is 1, then the frequency of that genotype is stable. A value greater than 1 conveys an increase in the genotype and a value less than 1 conveys a decrease

Question 6

Relative fitness definition

Answer 6

Relative fitness is the ratio of the number of surviving offspring per individual of a particular genotype to the number of surviving offspring per individual of the most successful genotype
Fitness is a measure of the tendency of some organisms to produce more surviving offspring than competing members of the same species.