Evolutionary Biology 3

Question 1

Dessication

Answer 1

a condition of extreme dryness

Question 2

Why is genetic variation needed

Answer 2

increases physiological and disease tolerance ion populations. low genetic variation can limit distribution range.

Question 3

How can a species deal with a lack of genetic variation

Answer 3

Mutation - unlikely to have a great effect

Phenotypic plasticity - allows flexibility and variance without genetic requirements

Transposing elements (TEs) - can preadapt populations by generating genetic variation. They may also (Platt et al 2018) allow populations to explore a fitness landscape in a shorter amount of time.

Question 4

Phenotypic plasticity

Answer 4

when the same genotype produces multiple phenotypes depending on environmental conditions

example: colour morphs of butterfly’s depending on temperature and season

Question 5

Transposing elements (TEs)

Answer 5

sequences of DNA that move/jump from one part of the genome to another.

Question 6

Fitness/Adaptive landscapes

Answer 6

A very useful tool for visualising adaptive paths. Adaptions that are similair and placed physically close together whilst height at each point denotes fitness

Question 7

pleiotropy

Answer 7

genes affecting more than one character

Question 8

What happens when traits are correlated

Answer 8

as trait 1 increases so too does trait 2

Question 9

how can we plot traits

Answer 9

Adaptive landscapes

Question 10

Genetic bottleneck

Answer 10

when a populations genetic variation is reduced for one generation or more

Question 11

Reaction Norm

Answer 11

describes the patterns of forms of phenotypic plasticity across different enviroments