CAPE Biology Unit 1 · 2007 · Paper 1 · Question Q36

In the Caribbean, sweet potato plants are propagated asexually by tubers. Twenty tubers collected from one plant were grown to produce 20 second-generation plants. All the tubers from these second-generation plants were collected, weighed and their mean weight calculated. Twenty tubers closest to the mean weight were grown under the same circumstances as before. All the third generation tubers were collected, weighed and their mean weight calculated. Compared to the second-generation tubers, the third generation tubers have

1. (A)a greater mean weight and increased genetic variation
2. (B)a greater mean weight and unchanged genetic variation
3. (C)an unchanged mean weight and reduced genetic variation
4. (D)an unchanged mean weight and an unchanged genetic variation