Exam 1 Flashcards
What does diploid mean?
Having 2 copies of each gene
What is an allele?
- alternative form of a gene
- for example: “A” or “a”
What is the definition of evolution?
change in genetic frequency of inherited traits over time
What is a gene?
- a functional unit of hereditary
- a segment of DNA
- provides instructions on constructing proteins or RNA molecules
What does haploid mean?
having just 1 copy of each gene
What is a genotype?
the alleles of an individual
Example: “Aa” or “aa” or “AA”
What is a phenotype?
the physical trait expressed as a result of their alleles
Example: “white flowers” or “yellow flowers”
Who influenced Charles Darwin’s theories?
Thomas Malthus and his “Struggle to Survive”
Who did Russell Wallace send his theory of natural selection to for the purpose of publication?
Charles Darwin
What was the publication that was the culmination of Russell Wallace and Charles Darwin’s efforts?
The “Origin of Species” in 1854
What is natural selection?
- a mechanism of evolution
- where organisms with better fitness survive and reproduce, passing on their genes
True or False:
Natural selection favors only genetic traits.
False - natural selection also favors behaviors
What is evolutionary fitness?
the ability to survive and reproduce
What is relative fitness?
fitness compared to other individuals, based on contribution to the gene pool
What is homology?
similarities resulting from common ancestry
What is analagous?
similarities resulting from convergent evolution
What is convergent evolution?
Where distantly related organisms evolve similar traits independently of eachother
What is monogamy?
1 mate pair; reduces randomness
What is polygyny?
1 male and multiple females
What is polyandry?
1 female and multiple males
What are the 5 conditions of Hardy-Weinberg Equilibrium?
1) random mating
2) very large population size
3) no natural selection
4) no migration
Describe the Abiogenesis Theory
- first organic molecules may have formed in a chemical “soup” about 3.5 billion years ago
What experimented as done for the Abiogenesis Theory?
- the Miller-Urey Experiment, where water was gently heated along with gases such as methane, ammonia, etc
- sparks were added to simulate lightning
- after just a week, amino acids were formed as the water turned black
- first attempt at simulating early earth conditions for the formation of biology
Describe the RNA World Hypothesis
- RNA is the prime candidate as the first type of nucleic acid due to its ability to form without help
- RNA can automatically base pair with free floating nucleotides and/or base pair with itself to form ribozymes
What are Ribozymes?
RNA that has base paired with itself or as found complementary RNA bases. Some can even exhibit behaviors in the interest of survival!
Phylogeny is the study of-
evolutionary relationships among living things, so basically evolutionary ancestry
(think ancestry.com)
Define Taxon
groups organized in a hierarchy
Nomenclature
- devised a the binomial nomenclature, a system that we use today
- binomial nomenclature where first is genus in capitalization followed by its species in lowercase
Define Clade
- refers to monophyletic groups
- a group of organisms with a common ancestor
Examples:
Monophyletic, Paraphyletic, Polyphyletic
Define Node(Phylogeny)
point where a branch splits
Define Ancestral trait
shared with ancestors
Define Derived Trait
- trait that’s new to a clade/related group, but isn’t shared
- may appear randomly from mutation
- out of nowhere
