Researchers investigating cave fish found a new population in apreviously undiscovered cave. These fish also lacked eyes, butdifferent from the other populations, their eye developmentappeared to fail during lens induction. The researchers observed afailure to induce a lens placode. Their next goal was to determinethe mechanism that caused loss of eyes in this population.
a) (2 points) The researchers hypothesized that a loss offunction mutation in one or more of six possible genes was likelythe cause. List the six most likely candidate genes.
b) (3 pts) How could the researchers determine if one of thosesix genes had a mutation.
c) (5 pts) Assume that the researchers found a mutation in oneof those six genes. Describe an experiment the researchers couldconduct using the surface fish as a model to determine if theidentified mutation was sufficient to cause a failure of eyeformation. List the possible results and highlight/underline theresult that supports their hypothesis.
