New Frontiers in Evolutionary Biology Flashcards
How are genes regulated?
Epigenetics
How do genes evolve over time?
Genome Evolution
What do gene sequences tell us about evolutionary relationships between species?
Molecular Phyogenetics
What are the functions of the genes in an organism ?
Systems biology and bioinformatics
How do genes guide embryological development ?
Evolutionary Development
A computer algorithm and software package that allows researchers to quickly upload and compare sequences from species against online databases of samples from other species in hopes of finding homologous sequences
BLAST
Determining the location of every gene on a chromosome, as well as the function of every gene
Gene Mapping
Calculating the accumulation of sequence differences between diverse species following a sequence alignment
Sequence Divergence
Collecting sequence samples from many different individuals from the same species to create a “consensus “ sequence that identifies the genes that are shared by all individuals of that species
Reference Sequences
Collecting and compiling information from reference sequences to create a complete sequence of all the nucleotides, in order, found on every chromosome of a species.
Whole Genome Sequence
Genetically modifying a sequence of DNA to include a mutation that inactivates a gene in a model organism so researchers can see what effect that broken gene has on the phenotype of the organism
Gene Knock outs
Arranging sequence data from multiple different species to find where sequences overlap and where homologs are present , as well as where changes to the sequences have accumulated.
Sequence Alignment
What is true about the evolution of genomes ?
Studying genomes allows for the comparison of diverse taxa even if they do not share any morphological similarities
UUU changes to UUA
NON- synonymous
GGU changes to GGC
Synonymous
UAC changes to UAG
NON- synonymous
UAA changes to UAG
Synonymous
UAU changes to UAC
Synonymous
Kimura’s Neutral Theory
- Many mutations are selectively neutral
-Neutral mutations can be influenced by genetic drift - Mutations occur by chance
- Many mutations are not acted upon by selection
The snc5 gene codes for a protein that activates the expression of the hrmp1 gene
Regulatory Gene
A sequence of DNA that does not code for the formation of a protein, but has other functions within the genome
Non- coding gene
A gene that codes for a protein that is needed to build structures or perform functions within a cell
Structural Gene
A gene that codes for regulatory proteins that can activate or de-activate other genes
Regulatory Gene
A transposon, that can move and interrupt gene sequences, leading to dysregulation or a loss of gene expression
Non- coding gene
The gene that codes for the protein Titin, which is a critical component of muscle cells and tissues
Structural gene
Cell differentiation and specialization
-Genes that control and regulate the expression of structural genes determine what features a cell will have
- Changes to gene expression and regulation can cause a normal cell to become cancerous
- Cancer cells are dysregulated cells that have lost their cell specialization due to improper gene expression
- Changes in gene expression and regulation can have major effects on the phenotype of a cell
The gene HoxA4 is present and activated in species as distantly related as sea urchins, fruit flies , fish and mammals
Evo- Devo rule 2
The silencing of genes in skin cells that produce hair follicles due to the binding of methyl groups leads to the absence of hair in some mammal species
Epigenetics
A mutation in homebox gene HoxA7 leads to the development of a 4th set of legs on a fruit fly
Evo Devo rule 1
