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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	$4.97$ ‍ x $10^{- 3}$ ‍
SARS coronavirus	$2.82$ ‍ x $10^{- 3}$ ‍
Human rotavirus A	$1.66$ ‍ x $10^{- 3}$ ‍
West Nile virus	$0.85$ ‍ x $10^{- 3}$ ‍
Human hepatitis B virus	$0.43$ ‍ x $10^{- 3}$ ‍
Human adenovirus B	$0.07$ ‍ x $10^{- 3}$ ‍

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.

Biology library

Course: Biology library > Unit 26

Problem