C3. Using Gene Technologies to Assess Genetic Diversity

Question 1

Clarifying evolutionary relationships
New or improved technologies can result in new discoveries being made and the relationships between organisms being clarified. This can lead to classification systems being updated. Technologies that have been useful for clarifying evolutionary relationships include: (3 things, 3,2,1 points)

Answer 1

Genome sequencing

• Advances in genome sequencing have meant that the entire base sequence of an organism’s DNA can be determined.
• The DNA base sequence of one organism can then be compared to the DNA base sequence of another organism, to see how closely related they are.
• Closely related species will have a higher percentage of similarity in their DNA base sequence, e.g. humans and chimps share around 94%, humans and mice share about 86%.

Comparing amino acid sequence

• Proteins are made of amino acids. The sequence of amino acids in a protein is coded for by the base sequence in DNA
• Related organisms have similar DNA sequences and so similar amino acid sequences in their proteins.

Immunological comparisons

• Similar proteins will also bind the same antibodies.

Question 2

Interpreting Data (Read and understand 3 examples)

Answer 2