The Fact That Mutations are Random and Independent of "Need

Question

The fact that mutations are random and independent of "need implies that:
A) a population could become extinct because it lacks the variation to evolve.
B) every population must already contain all the variants of the alleles that it could ever potentially need.
C) a perfectly adapted population will have no variation.
D) mutation rate increases with environmental instability.

Accepted Answer

Mutations occur without regard to what might be beneficial for an organism in a given environment. Therefore, if a population lacks genetic variation, it might not be able to adapt to changing conditions and could become extinct. The randomness of mutations means they do not occur in response to an organism's needs.