Investigating diversity

Question 1

What can be compared to find genetic diversity within or between species?

Answer 1

• the frequency of measurable or observable characteristics
• the base sequence of DNA
• the base sequence of mRNA
• the amino acid sequence of the proteins encoded by DNA and mRNA

Question 2

What is convergent evolution?

Answer 2

• two distinct species with differing ancestries evolve to display similar physical features

Question 3

What does convergent evolution lead to?

Answer 3

• incorrect relationships and false evolutionary
  predictions

Question 4

What is divergent evolution?

Answer 4

• how species can have common (homologous)
  anatomical structures which have evolved
  for different purposes

Question 5

What is genome sequencing?

Answer 5

• working out the sequence of bases in a genome

Question 6

Why is low genetic diversity worrying?

Answer 6

1. It will mean that a population will struggle to adapt to changing environmental conditions over evolutionary time.
2. It implies that the organisms within a population are all very closely related to each other. This increases the risk posed by certain genetic diseases that may have been in the small number of individuals that founded the surviving population

Question 7

What can DNA fingerprinting establish?

Answer 7

• phylogenetic relationships
• general biodiversity

Question 8

How can biodiversity be assessed within a species at a genetic level?

Answer 8

• looking at the variety of alleles in the gene pool of a population
• The more alleles per gene and the higher the frequency of each of these alleles, the greater the biodiversity

Question 9

What is species diversity?

Answer 9

• the number of different species and individuals within each species in a community

Question 10

What is ecosystem diversity?

Answer 10

• the range of different habitats

Question 11

What can biodiversity be used to describe?

Answer 11

• range of habitats from small local habitats to the entire earth