Anthropogenic Selection & Antibiotic Resistance — NEET Biology
✅ Asked in NEET 2022Natural selection where more individuals acquire specific character value other than the mean character value, leads to (NEET 2022 Phase 1)
Natural selection where more individuals acquire specific character value other than the mean character value, leads to (NEET 2022 Phase 1)
Which of the following refer to correct example(s) of organisms which have evolved due to changes of the environment brought about by anthropogenic action? (NEET 2020) (i) Darwin’s Finches of Galapagos islands (ii) Herbicide-resistant weeds (iii) Drug-resistant eukaryotes (iv) Man-created breeds of domesticated animals like dogs
Answer & NCERT explanation
Correct answer: C — Directional change
Directional selection occurs when individuals with extreme character values (not mean) are favored, shifting population mean in one direction. Natural selection favors individuals with specific advantageous traits, gradually moving the population toward that character value. This creates evolutionary change in a particular direction rather than maintaining status quo or random changes.
Read more NCERT concept on the PYQ
Similarly, excess use of herbicides, pesticides, etc., has only resulted in selection of resistant varieties in a much lesser time scale. This is also true for microbes against which we employ antibiotics or drugs against eukaryotic organisms/cell. Hence, resistant organisms/cells are appearing in a time scale of months or years and not centuries. These are examples of evolution by anthropogenic action. This also tells us that evolution is not a directed process in the sense of determinism. It is a stochastic process based on chance events in nature and chance mutation in the organisms.
NTA tests whether you understand that antibiotic/pesticide resistance evolves through natural selection, not directed evolution. The trap: students think evolution happens because organisms "try" to survive or because resistance is predetermined. Reality check: resistance emerges from random mutations followed by selection pressure—the fast timeline (months/years vs. centuries) proves evolution is stochastic (chance-based), not deterministic. NEET questions ask why resistance appears rapidly or which factor drives it. Remember: humans create selection pressure, but mutations are random; only the resistant survive. This directly connects to directional selection—a core NEET concept tested via real-world examples like MRSA bacteria or herbicide-resistant weeds.
What does NCERT say about Similarly excess use herbicides?
Has this concept appeared in NEET?
Which chapter is this from?
Through deep analysis of NEET and NTA, 88 of 90 questions from the NEET 2026 paper were matched straight from the MedicNEET Biology question bank.
88/90MedicNEET's Biology question bank is built from the same NCERT lines NTA picks repeatedly. Not random MCQs — questions crafted exactly like NTA crafts them.