Mockford Flashcards
What are the 4 main evolutionary forces (drivers of evolution)?
- Mutation
- Genetic drift
- Natural selection
- Migration (gene flow)
Mutation is … and introduces new … into a population
random, variation
Genetic drift is random changes in … allele frequency. It occurs more in … populations, tends to lower … and can cause isolated populations to …
unselected, smaller, heterozygosity, diverge
Migration counteracts…
divergence due to drift
Natural selection is … and … focussed
fitness, adaptation
Mutation can be … or in the …
somatic (body cells - not passed onto next generation), germline
Germline mutations can be … mutations or … mutations.
point, block
Block mutations affect vast areas of a …, which may be…
chromosome
- Deleted
- Inserted
- Translocated
- Inverted
- Duplicated
Point mutations can be…
- Substitutions
- Insertions
- Deletions
- inversions
Point mutations may also be silent (…) or …-…
synonymous, non-synonymous
Non-synonymous point mutations can be…
- Missense (codes for different amino acid)
- Nonsense (codes for stop codon)
- Frame shift
- all mutations add variation
Neurofibromatosis affects 1 in 3000-4000 people in the UK. It is caused by the … gene, which has one of the highest … rates of any human disorder. The gene’s role is to…. So far 255 different mutations have been reported. Around 50% of cases are inherited and the other 50% are new mutations
NF1, mutation, suppress tumours along nerve cells
Genetic variation within a population is dynamic and changes between generations. Allele frequency can change by …
chance
Population size matters. Endangered populations have gone through … … and have a limited gene pool. Satellite populations can take a different evolutionary pathway, called the … …
genetic bottlenecks, founder effect
Genetic drift depends on the … population size (Ne), which is the number of … … individuals. This rarely equals the census (Nc)
effective, sexually reproducing
Gene flow is when … move between populations, generally via …, although other ways include … and … … …
genes, migration, travellers, lateral gene transfer
Natural selection is…
the differential survival and/or reproduction of classes of entities that differ in one or more characteristics.
Fitness is the….
probability of survival x the average number of offspring for a class of individuals
An adaptation is…
a characteristic that enhances the survival or reproduction of organisms that bear it, relative to alternative character states
Characteristics are not all adaptations. They may just be a consequence of …, for example red blood cells are red because they contain iron and haemoglobin, and genetic drift can spread … traits. They may be … (now used for something they weren’t originally), or may be a consequence of gene …
physics/chemistry, neutral, exaptations, linkage
Linkage disequilibrium is…
alleles appearing together more often than you would expect by chance
What can cause linkage disequilibrium? give e.g.s
- Weakly beneficial alleles grouping together due to stronger cumulative effect (not much effect when on own)
- Structural changes e.g. inversion, which blocks recombination
- Hitchhiking alleles - non-selected alleles around selected allele passed onto next gen (in “selective sweep”) - has been found when selecting for body size in mice and in humans for the lactose digesting allele
How do we show natural selection exists?
- Correlations between trait and environment
- Responses to experimental change in the environment
- Show correlations between the trait and fitness component
Guppies in Trinidad. 1 predator eats only …, 1 predator eats …. In areas of low predation, guppies have a different colour to those in areas of high predation. This is due to a trade-off between … … and not getting … before reproduction. … and … spots were reduced in high predation environments. In both treatments, spot size … background grain size, but not when there were no predators.
Juveniles, all guppies, attracting females, eaten, blue, iridescent, matched
When there were no predators, the spots were doing the opposite to the background (grain size) - so were trying to stand out. Why is this the case, especially when pigments such as melanin and carotenoids are costly to produce?
- Correlation between trait and fitness component - more carotenoids = faster and more viable sperm
- 2013 study found some effect of orange BUT more of an effect on female selection if the male is rare (negative frequency dependent selection)
What are the types of selection?
Directional selection - shifts the overall population by favouring the extreme
Stabilising selection - acts against extreme phenotypes
Divergent selection - favours variants of opposite extremes (normally in 2 different environments, between populations. When in the same population it is disruptive selection)
The spadefoot toad (Spea multiplicata) has two different morphs:…
- omnivores - rounded bodies, long intestines, not many jaw muscles, many teeth - feed at bottom of pond
- carnivores - longer bodies, shorter intestines, stronger jaw muscles, fewer teeth - feed in water column on fairy shrimp
The two spadefoot toad morphs are the same species so can interbreed, although…
the intermediates are less likely to survive to metamorphosis - they have a lower feeding efficiency and smaller body size
A mark-recapture study showed that the intermediate form…
was being selected against - divergent selection occuring
However, carnivores were actually…
favoured over omnivores by directional selection as well
If the intermediate form is so unfit, why hasn’t it been lost?
When co-occuring with Spea bombifrons (another species of spadefoot toad), the intermediate form is favoured. Spea bombifrons is dominant and occurs in the same habitats, so the intermediate form avoids the competition.
- this means that all 3 types of selection occur simultaneously
… is necessary for selection, despite selection reducing it
variation
Sockeye salmon…
Quinn et al., 2007
migrate earlier to avoid the peak fishing season in canada - time of migration is genetically controlled
- e.g. of directional selection
Dog whelks: positive correlation between…
Berry & Crothers, 1968
stabilising selection of whelks and intensity of wave action experienced by the whelks.
Variance of more exposed whelks reduced by 90%
How is genetic diversity maintained?
- Sex
- Ploidy
- Gene flow
- Mutation
- Balancing selection (heterozygote advantage + frequency dependent selection)
How does sexual reproduction introduce variation into a population?
- Independent assortment
- Random fertilisation
- Crossing over
Ploidy - genetic variation can be hidden in….
recessive alleles
Balancing selection acts to…
maintain the proportion of alleles in the population
Give an e.g. of heterozygote advantage
Sickle cell anaemia - if heterozygote then more protected against malaria (both recessive - serious anaemia, no recessive allele - vulnerable to malaria) - maintained in population in areas where malaria is prevalent
Connexin 26:
- 2 copies = deafness
- 1 copy = increased cell repair
- heterozygote advantage
What are the 4 critiques as to why heterozygote advantage might not be common?
- Surely a good adaptation should be fixed at 100% in the population as soon as possible? - NO - when a mutation arises in a population it only has to be fit in the heterozygote form (1 copy) and usually is - chance of mutation in both alleles miniscule
- What appears to be HA may not actually be HA - linkage disequilibrium - beneficial alleles for one gene may be linked with fitness-reducing alleles of another gene, which can make the heterozygote for one or both of the genes look advantageous - called ASSOCIATIVE OVERDOMINANCE
- HA imposes a ‘load’ on the population (adds genotypes that are detrimental) - decreases mean fitness of the population
- HA is unstable because of duplication - normally duplication only leads to redundant genes. But with HA a duplication mutation event would lead to only needing one copy instead of two for the detrimental effect - would be selected against very quickly
What is the selection coefficient (s)?
The difference between the mean relative fitness of individuals of a given genotype and that of a reference genotype
fitness is represented by the letter ‘…’
w
The genetic load is…
the difference between the maximum fitness and the mean fitness
Positive frequency-dependent selection is when..
the survival and reproduction of any one morph increases if that phenotypic form becomes more common in the environment
Negative frequency dependent selection is when…
the survival and reproduction of any one morph decreases if that phenotypic form becomes more common in the environment
- advantage of being rare
What is an example of positive frequency-dependent selection?
- Mullerian mimicry
What is an example of negative frequency-dependent selection?
- Batesian mimicry
Positive FD selection … help with maintaining polymorphism, whereas negative FD …
doesn’t, does
Lake Tanganyika cichlids (Perissodus microlepis)…
display NFDS. They have mouths that point left or right as they consume pieces of their larger prey fish from the side. If more (>50%) attacks come from one side the prey fish learns to be more defensive of this side. This means that left and right mouthed individuals is maintained at around 50%, with fluctuations around this over time
Left handedness is … and associated with costs such as lower height and reduced longevity. Raymond et al. (1996) suggested negative frequency-dependent hypothesis for why it remained in the population…
When fighting, left handed may be beneficial, as, due to it being rarer in the population, opponents would not expect left handed punches and would not have as much practice defending against them, therefore making them more effective in the fight.
- there is evidence that left-handers are more successful in baseball, cricket and homicide
How could the evolution of correlated traits occur?
- Linkage disequilibrium
- Pleiotropy (genes effecting more than one character
G. fortis…
- beak size increased after drought on G. islands in 1977 - as bigger seeded plants with harder seed cases survived more. However bill length was actually reduced as bill depth increased in the population (as closely linked on genome), which actually hindered the adaptive path of the species
The direction of evolution depends on genetic …
correlation
Species with a low genetic variance are unlike to have…
a great physiological tolerance
Species with greater physiological tolerance to climatic variables will be able to extend their distribution to…
higher latitudes
The problem with tropical species is that their environment is very …, so they don’t have much … variation which would give them a greater physiological tolerance range
stable, background
Tropical drosophila species…
Kellerman et al., 2009
have lower standardised cold resistance and desiccation resistance than those drosophila species found globally
- More tolerant species had more genetic variation involved with cold and desiccation tolerance