lecture 06 - how organisms adapt and evolve Flashcards
what is evolution?
process driven by natural selection that changes populations of organisms of organisms over time, leading to speciation
what are the 4 things for natural selection to occur?
heredity, reproduction, physical traits that differ, and variation in the number of offspring produced by each individual
define alleles
different forms of a gene (M, m)
define gene pool
the sum of all the alleles in a population
define evolution
change in allele (or gene) frequencies within a gene pool over time (within a population)
why are individuals variable
they have a genotype and a phenotype
define a phenotype
an attribute of an organism that is observed such as its behaviour, morphology or physiology (how the gene is expressed)
define a genotype
the set of genes an organism has
what does evolution require?
phenotypic variation among individuals that is heritable
what are the results of phenotype variation?
the combined effects of genes and environment (how the gene is expressed and how that gets passed down to offspring)
what is phenotypic plasticity?
variation we see in a phenotype that is the result of environmental variation
what are genetic differences?
phenotypic differences we see that are due to differences in genetic material
what are the mechanisms of evolution?
natural selection
genetic drift
natural selection
- more offspring are produced than can survive
- traits vary among individuals within a population and may be heritable
- some heritable traits give individuals an advantage
- advantageous traits that provide higher fitness, become more common
what is direction selection?
an extreme phenotype becomes more frequent