Biology

River Bender

2 August, 21:59

The life cycle of a slime mold is shown here. It has both sexual and asexual reproductive abilities. The majority of the life cycle is spent as haploid. A student observes a population of slime molds cultured from a forest ecosystem. The student notes that there are many slime molds in the diploid (2n) form. What statement best describes the conclusions that the student can draw?

A) Slime molds were unable to form a fruiting body, which resulted in an increase in diploid forms.

B) Slime molds were able to reproduce more quickly using sexual reproduction, which resulted in many diploid forms.

C) Slime molds lacked an essential nutrient in the environment to allow for reproduction, which resulted in many diploid forms.

D) Slime molds were able to tolerate changing conditions in the forest with greater genetic diversity, which resulted in many diploid forms