Exam 4 (Parapatric Speciation - Human Evolution) Flashcards
How does parapatric speciation occur?
A population doing well expands its geographic range and experiences a stepped cline and a hybrid zone is formed
What is a cline?
A range of area where the environment rapidly changes and there are different selective pressures on either side
What is a hybrid zone?
A primary contact zone where the populations have never been separated by physical barriers
What is a tension zone?
A zone where the hybrids are less fit than their parents and sets up conditions for reinforcement to be maintained
What is reinforcement?
When hybrids are less fit than their parents because they are not suited to either parental environment and selection will favor assortative mating
What is a primary contact zone? What about secondary?
Primary = the populations have never been separated
Secondary = populations separated at first then populations meet
** most hybrid zones have been secondary; it is hard to determine whether hybrid zones are either or
Why do we expect to find greater prezygotic isolation closer to the hybrid zone than away from it?
We would expect to find a selection for a greater amount of assortative mating near the step because individuals are hybridizing with each other more than the individuals farther from the step who are interbreeding amongst themselves
Why should selection for assortative mating be strongest at the cline?
The individuals farther away from the step are mating with those in their own environments so there is no selection on them for assortative mating; they do not experience any fitness advantage because they have been selected to live in that environment; individuals at the step can hybridize and have less fitness if they do because they are not suited for either environment
What do we actually see regarding prezygotic isolation and the hybrid zone?
In reality, we do not often find greater prezygotic isolation closer to the hybrid zone than away from it
What can we conclude about parapatric speciation?
It is possible but evidence suggests it is not common
What is sympatric speciation?
2 populations of the same species stay in the same environment and still speciate
What are the 2 types of sympatric speciation?
Gradual and Instantaneous
What is required for gradual sympatric speciation?
A population has to have at least 2 morphs and a patchy environment
What is a patchy environment?
Places within the environment where one morph does better than the other
Why is this not small scale allopatry?
There is no physical barrier just different habitat preferences and the different morphs can still breed with each other
Why are hybrids less fit?
They are not suited to either parental environment
Why does that favor the evolution of assortative mating?
Individuals mating with other like individuals will mean their offspring will be suited for the parental environments (greater fitness) compared to a hybrid individuals not suited for either one (lower fitness)
What is a host shift?
The movement of a parasite, disease, insect herbivore from one host to another
Explain an example of a host shift & how it relates to sympatric speciation.
The tephritid fly (R. Pomonella) originally lived on hawthorns (native to U.S.), then it was seen on other species such as apples, pears, cherries and have genetically differentiated on their different hosts since apple-morph maggots do best on apple while hawthorn-morph maggots do best on hawthorn
Why do the developmental biases of species like these promote speciation?
Females prefer to lay eggs in the same fruit type as they developed and in turn their female offspring do the same
The pre-exisiting genetically-based behaviors quickly create high levels of pre-zygotic isolation since maggots in apples attracted to the apple smell as adults, they find mates there, and won’t usually interact with adults that were hawthorn maggots
What are the 2 types of instantaneous sympatric speciation?
Allopolyploid Hybrids and Diploid Hybrids
What are allopolyploid hybrids?
When 2 different hybridize but their offspring inherit the complete diploid nuclear genomes of their parents; have a higher ploidy level
** N1 != N2 (ploidy levels of parents)
Why is this instanteous?
A backcross to either parent will produce a triploid offspring which will be completely sterile if not inviable due to inability to assort properly during meiosis
What are diploid hybrids?
The normal haploid gametes from 2 species combine to produce a diploid hybrid
** N1 == N2
Why is speciation not instantaneous for diploid hybrids?
The hybrid can backcross to its parents
How does the hybrid become isolated then?
The combination of the parental genomes creates a hybrid with new phenotype combinations and there is selection for survival in a different habitat than either of the parental species OR chromosomal rearrangements promote post-zygotic incompatibility
What chromosomal rearrangements are most important in this process? Why?
Inversion but mostly multiple translocations can cause multivalents to form during meiosis
What were the pre-biotic conditions of early earth like?
There was volcanic activity, the atmosphere was primarily composed of 80% nitrogen and reducing
Why did oxygen take so long to accumulate?
Oxygen was reacting with other elements instead
What was the Miller-Urey experiment?
They recreated the conditions of early earth: added energy (lightning/UV) to a reducing atmosphere
What were the results of their experiment?
Were able to produce 17/20 amino acids, produced the nucleic acids: AUCG, T was not produced but it is just a methylated form of U
What does the RNA world theory hypothesize?
RNA came before DNA so RNA was the first genetic material and RNA sequences are the catalysts instead of proteins (ribozymes), some are self-catalytic for their own replication
What evidence is there for the RNA world theory?
The presence of uracil and very little thymidine in the Miller-Urey experiment, modern ribozymes such as self splicing introns & ribosomes, and experimental production of artificial ribozymes that self-reproduce
When does life start?
Precambrian about 3.6 bya - 541 mya
What evidence do we have for the first life?
Best fossil evidence = fossil stromatolites, bacteria like cells that were mostly unicellular and probably heterotrophic due to lack of oxygen
Why are fossils rare?
Fossils form easier in marine environments than terrestrial ones and due to subduction zones
What are subduction zones?
When marine and continental plates collide, marine plates are pushed underneath the continental ones because they are more dense while the continental one is pushed up
The fossils go under as well and are lost
Why did the accumulation of oxygen lead to profound changes in life?
Oxygen at first acted as a poison to the aerobic forms of life (also highly combustible); Selection for aerobic life forms that could tolerate it
Allowed greater metabolic efficiency (Anaerobic = 2 ATP/ glucose vs. 30-32 ATP/glucose
Made the complex multicellular life forms that require much higher levels of energy possible
Development of ozone layer which protects against UV radiation (allowing terrestrial life)
Decrease the greenhouse effect from CO2
What were the first eukaryotes like?
No evidence for eukaryotic cells until 1.8 bya
Mitochondria acquired from purple line of Eubacteria
Chloroplasts acquired from cyanobacteria
Development of nucleus
Precursor for multicellular life
What was multicellular life like?
The first organism (a fungus) appears about 2.4 bya
First animals appear about 670 - 550 mya: mostly soft bodied animals
What was the Cambrian explosion?
Sudden increase in fossil diversity
Evolution of hard parts likes bones, exoskeletons
Why does speciation produce nested sets of species?
Most speciation occurs when a single interbreeding group gets divided into two groups that stop interbreeding with one another; This process will necessarily create a nested set/hierarchical set of relationships among species
What are the 2 classification scheme criteria?
Objectivity Criterion & Naturalness
What is the objectivity criterion about?
Reasoning for grouping allows other people to have access to the same characters and apply it themselves and the characters are directly measured and observed
What is naturalness?
characters not used to determine the common features of a group will produce the same classification as the characters used to determine the group
What is character conflict?
Different sets of characters indicate different groupings (unnaturalness)
Why do we use these classification criteria?
They allow rational people to independently discover the same classification scheme; the classification is stable and repeatable
What is a sister species?
Species derived from the same most recent common ancestor (MRCA)