POPULATION GENETICS, NATURAL SELECTION, SPECIATION Flashcards
What is the common misconception about evolution?
That an individual organism can evolve
In reality, natural selection can act on individuals, each organism’s traits affecting its survival and reproductive success, however, the evolutionary impact of natural seletion is apparent only in how a population changes over time
SUMMARY: natural selection acts on individuals, but populations evolve
What is microevolution?
Microevolution is a change in allele frequency in a population over generations
What allows for a population to evolve?
Mutation and sexual recomination provide the variation needed to make evolution possible
What is a mutation?
A mutation is a change in the nucleotide sequence of an organism’s DNA and can result from the formation of new alleles
Are mutations always harmful?
Most new mutations which alter a phenotype are slightly harmful, however, some are removed quickly by natural selection. Other times these harmful alleles are recessive and therefore hidden from natural selection because its harmful effects are masked by a more favorable dominant allele, allowing it to persist for generations by propogation in heterozygous individuals. However, on rare occasion, certain mutations can make its bearer better suited to an environment, enhancing reproductive success
How does sexual reproduction produce new alleles and new genes?
Sexual reproduction allows for the change in arrangement of existing gees and then deals them at random to produce individual genotypes
What 3 mechanisms contribute to shuffling in sexual reproduction?
- Crossing over
- Independent assortment of chromosomes
- Fertilization
What is the Hardy-Weinberg Equilibrium?
The Hardy-Weinberg Equilibrium states that evolution isn’t occuring and allele and genotype frequencies aren’t changing from generation to generation
What are the conditions of Hardy-Weinberg Equilibrium?
- Extremely large population size
- No gene flow
- No mutations (no new alleles)
- No natural selection
- Random mating
What is the Hardy-Weinberg equation?
How do you calculate frequency using the Hardy-Weinberg equation?
frequency = q
How to calculate genotype frequency in a population?
B^2 + 2Bb + b^2 = 1
How to calculate allele frequency in a population?
B + b = 1
What 3 main factors cause an allele frequency to change?
- Natural selection
- Results in alleles being passed to the next generation in proportions that differ from those in present generations
- Genetic drift - chance events which alter allele frequency
- Gene flow - the transfer of alleles between populations
- Can affect how well populations are adapted to local environment conditions
- Can transfer alleles that improve the ability of populatios to adapt to local conditions
What are the effects of genetic drift?
- Significant in small populations
- Cause allele frequency to change randomly
- Loss of genetic variation within a population
- Can allow harmful alleles to become fixed
What are the 2 types of genetic drift?
- Founder Effect
- Bottleneck Effect
What is the Founder Effect?
The Founder Effect occurs when a few individuals become isolated from a larger population and establish a new population whose gene pool differs from the source population
What is the Bottleneck Effect?
The Bottleneck Effect is caused by a severe drop in population size, causing certain alleles to be either overrepresented, underrepresented, or absent all together
What are the effects of gene flow?
- Causes population to either gain or lose alleles
- Decreases difference between populations over time
- Can lower the relative fitness of a population
- Decreases variation among populations with time
- Alleles moved among populations
What is the only mechanism that consistently causes adaptive evolution?
What is relative fitness?
Relative fitness is the contribution an individual males to the gene pool of the next generation relative to the contributions of other individuals
What are the 3 modes of selection?
- Directional selection - one extreme favored
- Disruptive selection - both extremes favored
- Stabilizing selection - intermediate favored