Question 62

(Multiple Choice)

The following questions refer to the description below.
All animals with eyes or eyespots that have been studied so far share a gene in common.When mutated,the gene Pax-6 causes lack of eyes in fruit flies,tiny eyes in mice,and missing irises (and other eye parts)in humans.The sequence of Pax-6 in humans and mice is identical.There are so few sequence differences with fruit fly Pax-6 that the human/mouse version can cause eye formation in eyeless fruit flies,even though vertebrates and invertebrates last shared a common ancestor more than 500 million years ago.
-The appearance of Pax-6 in all animals with eyes can be explained in multiple ways.Based on the information above,which explanation is most likely?


A)Pax-6 in all of these animals is not homologous; it arose independently in many different animal phyla due to intense selective pressure favouring vision.
B)The Pax-6 gene is really not "one" gene. It is many different genes that, over evolutionary time and due to convergence, have come to have a similar nucleotide sequence and function.
C)The Pax-6 gene was an innovation of an ancestral animal of the early Cambrian period. Animals with eyes or eyespots are descendants of this ancestor.
D)The perfectly designed Pax-6 gene appeared instantaneously in all animals created to have eyes or eyespots.

Answer