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Assertion: Mutations can be beneficial, harmful, or neutral.

Reason: Beneficial mutations always increase the organism's fitness, while harmful mutations always decrease it.

Option: 1

Assertion and reason are both true, and reason is an accurate account of assertion. 


Option: 2

Both assertion and reason are accurate, but reason does not adequately explain assertion.


Option: 3

The assertion is correct, but the reasoning is incorrect. 


Option: 4

Both the assertion and reason are incorrect.


Answers (1)

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Mutations can indeed be beneficial, harmful, or neutral. Beneficial mutations can increase the organism's fitness by providing an advantage in its environment, such as increased resistance to diseases or improved adaptation to changing conditions. Harmful mutations, on the other hand, can decrease the organism's fitness by causing functional impairments or increased susceptibility to diseases.

However, the Reason is incorrect because not all beneficial mutations always increase fitness, and not all harmful mutations always decrease fitness. The effect of a mutation on an organism's fitness depends on various factors, including the specific genetic context, the environment, and the selective pressures acting upon the organism. There can be cases where a mutation is beneficial in one environment but harmful in another, or where a mutation has no significant impact on fitness, making it neutral.

Therefore, while beneficial mutations tend to increase fitness and harmful mutations tend to decrease fitness, it is not an absolute rule, and the effects of mutations on an organism's fitness are context-dependent.

Option 3 is the correct answer.

 

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Anam Khan

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