Introduction To Evolution

Question 1

What does H-hemagglutinin do in influenza?

Answer 1

Provides specificity for the cell- its the virus binding to the cell

Question 2

What does N-neuraminidase do in influenza?

Answer 2

Affects how readily the virus is transmitted (virus released from the cell)

Question 3

What is reassortment?

Answer 3

Different flu strains infecting the same cell can swap different parts of their genetic material

Question 4

Which strain of flu predominated in 2018?

Answer 4

H3N2

Question 5

Can animal and human virus mix and reassert in the same cell?

Answer 5

Yes (COVID)

Question 6

Give the definition of evolution

Answer 6

Accumulated, heritable changes within a population over generations which give rise to a new species

Question 7

Give some small mistakes that happen during DNA/RNA replication

Answer 7

• Small duplications
• small insertions
• small deletions
• base substitution

Question 8

Give some big mistakes that happen during DNA/RNA replication

Answer 8

• Large DNA duplications
• chromosome rearrangements
• large deletions
• viral insertion
• insertion of transposable elements

Question 9

Species that share the more recent common ancestor will have (more/less) differences than those that are more distantly related?

Answer 9

Less

Question 10

What is phylogenetics?

Answer 10

Since new species arise from earlier species, they must share relationships

Question 11

What is systematics?

Answer 11

Classification of living things

Question 12

What is taxonomy?

Answer 12

Naming of groups into taxa

Question 13

What is classification

Answer 13

Arranging taxa into an ordered, hierarchical system

Question 14

What is phylogeny

Answer 14

Determination of ancestral relationships of organisms and their evolutionary history

Question 15

What is natural selection?

Answer 15

Organisms better adapted to their environment survive to produce more offspring

Question 16

What is genetic drift

Answer 16

Variation in relative frequency of different genotypes in small populations due to chance

Question 17

What is applied selection?

Answer 17

Plant or animal breeding

Antibiotic, drug or pesticide resistance

Question 18

Give the steps for the ecoli evolution experiment

Answer 18

• Get 12 ecoli colonies from a single clone.
• Put one in each flask
• every day for 30 years take 10% of the colony and place it into a new flask
• freeze culture samples every 500 generations (75 days)

Question 19

How many generations have been observed in the ecoli experiment?

Answer 19

73000

Question 20

Give the details of the ecoli experiment

Answer 20

• Low amounts of glucose in growth medium

- they evolved very efficiently to use citrate in oxygen after about 30000 generations

Question 21

What was the ecoli experiment testing for?

Answer 21

The ability to grow in citrate in the presence of oxygen as they can’t very efficiently use citrate in the presence of oxygen

Question 22

How did the ecoli get around the citrate problem in the ecoli experiment?

Answer 22

The citrate and RNK promoter is duplicated and then turned on in oxygen (as a pose to Normal when it would be off)

Question 23

What allows us to track evolution in real time?

Answer 23

Large scale genome sequencing

Question 24

Do mutations at the 3rd base normally affect the phenotype?

Answer 24

No

Question 25

What is the mutation that causes sickle cell anaemia? (SCA)

Answer 25

Mutation in the beta globin gene- glu6val (glutamic acid on 6th residue has been mutated to a valine)

Question 26

What happens to the mutant hb molecule in sickle cell anaemia?

Answer 26

• aggregate and form crystals when deoxygenated
• cells with the characteristic sickle cell shape
• the sickle shaped cells don’t pass through smaller blood vessels and capillaries

Question 27

What type of gene is SCA?

Answer 27

Autosomal recessive

Question 28

Why do heterozygous SCA people have improved malarial survival rates?

Answer 28

They have lower levels of Parasites in the blood so there are fewer severe complications