21: Mechanisms of Evolutionary Change Flashcards
Module 4, Lesson 4
Generally, evolution is defined as…
A change in a population of organisms over time
In biology, evolution is defined as…
A change in allele frequencies in a population over time
True or false:
Individuals can evolve.
False
Evolution only occurs at the population level
The presence of different alleles in a population is called…
Genetic variation
True or false:
Genetic variation is necessary for evolution to occur.
True
____ can also be defined as the result of any process that changes the genetic composition of a population over time.
Evolution
List four areas of variation that can be observed in a population.
- Morphology
- Genes
- Proteins
- Genomes
____ occurs when a population has individuals with many different alleles for the same gene, resulting in a range of phenotypes.
Polymorphic variation
The ____ is the genetic constitution or makeup of an individual.
Genotype
The ____ is an individual’s apparent characteristics.
Phenotype
A primary focus of evolutionary biology is understanding….
The mechanisms of evolution
List five mechanisms of evolution.
- Mutation
- Gene flow
- Genetic drift
- Selection
- Nonrandom mating
True or false:
Mechanisms of evolution can act over both short and extremely long timescales.
True
A ____ is any change in the base sequence of DNA.
Mutation
The ultimate source of genetic variation is…
Mutation
True or false:
Mutations are the primary cause of changes in allele frequency within a population.
False
They are extremely rare, so the other processes play a bigger role
The movement of alleles from one population to another is called…
Gene flow
List two ways in which gene flow can occur.
- An organism moves to a new location
- An organism mates with a member of a different population
Gene flow can result in…
(two)
- The introduction of new alleles into a population
- A shift in allele frequencies
A change in allele frequencies due to “sampling error” (random chance) is called…
Genetic drift
Genetic drift has the greatest effect on ____ populations.
Small
True or false:
With enough time, genetic drift alone can cause substantial changes in allele frequencies.
True
As a result of genetic drift, two small, isolated populations may…
Differ genetically even without natural selection
List two results of genetic drift.
- Some alleles will build up (fixation) and others will be lost.
- The frequency of heterozygotes declines
The ____ occurs when a new population is established by a small number of individuals.
Founder effect
A population that experiences founder effect will…
Have a different allele frequency compared to the parent population
What happens if a founding individual carries a rare allele?
The new population has a higher frequency of that allele than the original population
The founder effect is common in ____, because generally only a small number of individuals were involved in colonization.
Island populations
The ____ occurs when a population loses genetic variation due to a drastic reduction in size.
Bottleneck effect