4.2 Evolution by Means of Natural Selection Flashcards
Conditions for natural selection
- Variation in traits of individuals within a population
- Variation in traits is heritable
- More offspring are produced than can survive due to limited resources
- Some individuals are better adapted for survival and reproduction in their environment that others based on trait differences
Limiting resources of natural selection
Food, suitable habitat, and mates to reproduce with
Malthusian principle
Populations increase at an exponential rate while availability of resources increases linearly
Intraspecific competition
Competition between members of the same species
Interspecific competition
Competition against other species
Natural outcomes of human overpopulation
Poverty, famine, and disease
Extant
living (species)
Macroevolution
Big-picture idea that species diversify over time, eventually forming clusters of closely related groups that biologists classify into families and phyla
Microevolution
Concerned with the details of how evolution occurs
Focuses on change in allele frequencies
Population genetics
Studies prevalence of alleles in a population and how populations differ genetically
Recombination
Produces new DNA sequences often from homologous chromosomes during crossover
Mutations
Changes to nucleotide sequence of a genome
Point mutation effects
May be beneficial if cause small change in protein structure that increases ability of protein to perform function
May cause no change if in non-coding region of DNA
Effects of mutation on duplicate gene
Mutation in a duplicate copy may cause minimal harm due to copy of un-mutated gene still existing
Translocation or duplication mutation effects
Can be beneficial by causing higher gene expression whether due to extra gene or translocation to area with more active promoter region
Polymorphism
Two or more alleles for the same trait
Limits to evolution
Two or more alleles for the same trait
Limits to evolution
- Mutation rate
- Rate of mutation spread
Gene
Unit of heritability
Single-gene trait
An individual gene controlling one trait
Polygenic trait
Many genes acting together to produce a single trait
Pleiotropy
A single gene influencing more than one trait
Negative frequency-dependent selection
Rare phenotypes have an advantage in a specific environment and natural selection makes them more common
Positive frequency-dependent selection
Rare phenotypes have a disadvantage and become even less favorable in a specific environment