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AP®︎/College Biology

Course: AP®︎/College Biology > Unit 7

Lesson 6: Common ancestry and continuing evolution

Common ancestry and continuing evolution

The following table lists evolution rate estimates for a set of viruses. The evolution rates are measured as the number of base-pair substitutions per nucleotide site in the virus genome, per year (s/n/y).

Virus name	Evolution rate (s/n/y)
Norwalk virus	4, point, 97 x 10, start superscript, minus, 3, end superscript
SARS coronavirus	2, point, 82 x 10, start superscript, minus, 3, end superscript
Human rotavirus A	1, point, 66 x 10, start superscript, minus, 3, end superscript
West Nile virus	0, point, 85 x 10, start superscript, minus, 3, end superscript
Human hepatitis B virus	0, point, 43 x 10, start superscript, minus, 3, end superscript
Human adenovirus B	0, point, 07 x 10, start superscript, minus, 3, end superscript

Which of the following claims is best supported by the data in the table?

(Choice A)
The West Nile virus is more likely to evolve to have an expanded host range over a given time period than the Norwalk virus is.
(Choice B)
A vaccine against the human rotavirus A is likely to be more durable in the population than a vaccine against human adenovirus B.
(Choice C)
The genome of the Norwalk virus is larger than the genome of the SARS coronavirus.
(Choice D)
The SARS coronavirus is more likely to evolve antiviral drug resistance over a given time period than the human hepatitis B virus.

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AP®︎/College Biology

Course: AP®︎/College Biology > Unit 7

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