Evolution By Means Of Natural Selection Flashcards
Natural Selection Requires:
-variation in individuals
-variation is heritable
-more offspring produced than can survive
-some individuals are better at surviving and/or reproduction than others
Darwin identified 4 conditions necessary for natural selection to operate:
- There’s a variation in the traits of individuals within a population.
- The variation in these traits is heritable, so they can be passed from parents to offspring.
- More offspring are produced than can survive (because the environment has limited resources).
- Some individuals are better adapted for survival and reproduction in their environment than others (based on differences in their traits).
Competition between members of the SAME species.
Intraspecific Competition
Competition against other species.
Interspecific Competition
The big-picture idea that species diversify over long periods, eventually forming clusters of closely related groups.
Can lead to speciation.
Macroevolution
Formation of a new species.
Speciation
More concerned with eh details of how evolution occurs. —> Focusing on changes in allele frequencies within shorter periods
Microevolution
Studies the prevalence of alleles in a population and how populations differ genetically.
Population Genetics
An individual gene controls one trait.
1 gene, 1 trait
Single-Gene Trait
Many genes acting together to produce a single trait.
many genes, 1 trait
Polygenic Trait
When a single gene influences more than 1 trait.
Pleiotrophy
Single-gene trait
Natural selection increases the frequency of an allele in a population when the allele codes for an adaptive trait and causes maladaptive alleles to decrease in frequency (or even disappear).
The fitness of a phenotype depends on its relative frequency within a population.
Frequency-Dependent Selection
Single-gene trait
Rare phenotypes have an advantage and natural selection makes them more common.
Negative Frequency-Dependent Selection
Single-gene trait
Adaptive advantage over homozygous.
Sometimes, having copes of different alleles make a heterozygous individual more fit than either homozygous individual.
Heterozygote Advantage
Natural selection affects/influences polygenic traits in 3 ways:
-Directional Selection
-Stabilizing Selection
-Disruptive Selection
How natural selection affects polygenic traits
Favors and extreme phenotype (so the population average shifts to the left OR to the right).
1 extreme, direction shift (1 way).
Directional Selection
How natural selection affects polygenic traits
Favors intermediate phenotypes (narrowing the distribution along the bell curve).
Average phenotype is preferred.
Tightening distribution.
Stabilizing Selection