AP BIOLOGY

Detailed explanation-1: -Continuous variation is often caused by a mixture of genes and environment. For example, a girl may inherit the genes to become really tall, but if she doesn’t eat nutritious food then she won’t be able to grow as tall as she might.

Detailed explanation-2: -The involvement of a variety of genes in the determination of an organism’s features is known as polygenic inheritance. This more complex cause brings about what is known as continuous variation.

Detailed explanation-3: -Characters influenced by many genes are called polygenic characters. Differences in external environmental conditions also produce continuous variation. In nature, each character will be influenced by many environmental variables, some tending to increase it, others to decrease it.

Detailed explanation-4: -These characteristics are usually controlled by alleles of one gene or a small number of genes, and are not strongly influenced by the environment. An example of discontinuous variation is blood type in humans.

Detailed explanation-5: -Continuous variation is the type of genetic variation in which a particular character shows an unbroken range of phenotypes. Generally, it is the most common type of genetic variation governed by the presence of many genes. The weight and height of animals are examples of continuous variation.