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Biology 1114 > Random Events > Flashcards

Random Events Flashcards

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1
Q

why is large population size important for the Hardy-Weinberg theorem?

A

a large population will follow HW more closely than a small one because alleles A and a are in a 1:1 ratio, so just like flipping a coin, and the larger the population, the closer the actual ratio of alleles passed on will be to 1:1

In a smaller population on 10 heterozygotes you might get 6 organisms that pass on A and 4 that pass on a and that would not be surprising but then the allele frequency has randomly shifted from p=.5 to p=.6

In a larger population of 1000 heterozygotes any random shift in p should be very small

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2
Q

what is genetic drift?

A

RANDOM change in allele frequencies between generations

no tendency for A or a to be favored

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3
Q

If genetic drift is the only microevolutionary force acting on a population, what are the eventual frequencies of alleles in the population?

A

All alleles except one will always be lost from the population 

the speed at which this will happen is dependent on the size of the population

drift is the march to homozygocity, it will erode variation to the point where there’s only one allele IF it’s the only thing acting upon a population

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4
Q

what did the genetic drift computer simulation show?

A

each panel showed ten simulations beginning at p=q=.5

drift eventually results in fixation, even in “large” populations

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5
Q

what does genetic drift lead to?

A

it is the “march to homozygosity”

if alleles are selectively neutral, population will eventually “drift” to homozygosity (fixation)

evolution has occurred by a random process

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6
Q

what is heterozygosity?

A

a standard measure of genetic variation per locus in a population

also called “gene diversity”

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7
Q

what is the formula for heterozygosity?

A

H = 1 - (p^2 + q^2)

p is the frequency of allele 1
1 is the frequency of allele 1

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8
Q

what is H?

A

heterozygosity: the chance of drawing 2 different alleles

in HW equilibrium, H is the proportion of heterozygotes

even a population with no heterozygotes can have heterozygosity...
- frequency of AA = .5
- frequency of Aa = 0
- frequency of aa = .5
BUT H = .5!!
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9
Q

what is homozygosity?

A

(f)

the chance of drawing 2 identical alleles

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10
Q

what are the two formulas for homozygosity?

A

f= (p^2+q^2)

OR

f= 1-H

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11
Q

what are the effects of drift and mutation on heterozygosity?

A

drift tends to reduct heterozygosity

mutation increases heterozygosity

Genetic polymorphism is thus a function of rate of drift and rate of mutation

selection can act before, during, or after, in concert with or in opposition to these forces

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12
Q

what is the founder effect?

A

establishment of a new population by a few “founder” which carry only a small fraction of the total genetic variation of the parental population –> not representative of the whole population –> non-random mating

if the founder event occurs but genetic variation of the new population is the same, then there is no genetic drift via founder effect

ex. original population has yellow, blue, and red
1) founder effect - yellow lost, blue more frequent
2) founder event, but not strong founder effect because there’s still a mix of all alleles
3) founder effect, nothing lost, but red much more frequent

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13
Q

what are some outcomes of the founder effect

A

composition of founder population is not purposefully selected to include particular genotypes

genes in low frequency in original population become common in founder population

well studied for genetic diseases in human populations

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14
Q

what is porphyria variegata?

A

abnormal heme molecules cause intermittent skin disorders, circulatory and respiratory problems

1 in 300 South African Afrikaaners

the mutant gene can be traced to a single couple who settled in South Africa in the 17th century

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15
Q

what is Huntington’s disease? How does it demonstrate the founder effect?

A

prevalence among Afrikaners can be traced to a single Dutch founder

432 carriers in Australia can be traced to a single English founder with 13 children

prevalence in Lake Maracaibo can be traced back 200 yrs to 1 founder with 10 children

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16
Q

what is Polydactyly? How does it demonstrate the founder effect?

A

more common among Amish than the American population at large

small number of founders

most marriages within population

gene can be traced to a single pair of founders in 1744

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17
Q

What is the chance of drawing one homozygote randomly?

A

p^2 + q^2

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18
Q

What is the chance of drawing two homozygotes randomly?

A

(p^2)^2 plus (q^2)^2

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19
Q

what is the Total chance of homozygosity?

A

[ (p^2)^N + (q^2)^N ]

N = size of founding population

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20
Q

Are founder events likely to produce homozygosity?

A

not likely to produce homozygosity

However:

  • rare alleles may be lost
  • new allele frequencies might be very different
  • rare alleles might be relatively more common
  • small founding populations vulnerable to subsequent drift
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21
Q

what are population bottlenecks?

A

Environmental (or other) catastrophe decimates a large percentage of the population

Population rebounds, but genetic diversity is a subset of what existed before catastrophe

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22
Q

when does a population bottleneck occur?

A

a bottleneck occurs when population size decreases, often resulting in a loss of genetic variation

founder effect is one kind of bottleneck

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23
Q

how is a past bottleneck identified?

A

A past bottleneck is often inferred from low levels of present genetic diversity

24
Q

importance of randomness in shaping population allele frequencies

A

genetic drift causes changes in allele frequency because a non-representative sample of the population produces more gametes –> resulting offspring don’t mirror the original population in terms of allele frequency (but because of chance, not fitness differences)

small populations may be especially vulnerable to random events because it is “easier” to draw a non-representative sample from them

25
Q

what does drift do to genetic variation?

A

drift reduces genetic variation

given enough time drift will end in fixation for neutral alleles

26
Q

what are neutral alleles?

A

neural alleles are those with no selective advantage/disadvantage

27
Q

rate of evolution and N relationship

A

rate of evolution via drift is independent of N

small populations are more sensitive to random events

28
Q

what is the chance that a given neutral allele becomes fixed?

A

1/2N

if you have a small population, the drift component is going to be a larger number

29
Q

what is the rate that neutral alleles are formed by mutation

A

2N(u)

u = rate of neutral mutations

30
Q

what is the rate of neutral evolution?

A

(1/2N) x 2N(u) = u

31
Q

what is u?

A

rate of neutral mutations

32
Q

what does the rate of neutral evolution depend on?

A

the rate of neutral evolution depends entirely on mutation rate

33
Q

what does it mean when 1/2N is a big number? how does that effect 2N(u)

A

there’s a good chance of a mutation becoming fixed in the population

however, 2N(u) is a smaller number and there’s a small chance of that mutation actually occurring though –> less alleles, less chance of the mutation is actually going to occur

these two forces oppose each other***

34
Q

what does mutation do to HW?

A

mutation violates hardy-weinberg by introducing new alleles into the population

35
Q

neutral mutation and polymorphism

A

neutral mutation maintains polymorphism

if drift occurs shouldn’t populations be homozygous?

NO: mutation balances drift to produce an equilibrial heterozygosity (H*)

36
Q

what is polymorphism?

A

the occurrence of different forms among the members of a population or colony, or in the life cycle of an individual organism.

37
Q

what is H*?

A

equilibrial heterozygosity

mutation balances drift to produce an equilibrial heterozygosity

38
Q

when is H* lower?

A

1) N is small (small population)
2) u is small (mutations are infrequent)

under these conditions, drift is more powerful

H is dependent on Nu…the larger Nu, the larger H is

39
Q

purifying selection

A

even if drift is important, most mutations may have negative consequences

natural selection weeds the highly negative ones out right away through purifying selection

40
Q

how common is mutation in asexual vs sexual organisms?

A

mutation is not very common in sexual organisms

high mutation rate may be advantageous in an uncertain world

41
Q

sex ratio of gonochoric population

A

Most gonochoric (dioecious) populations have a sex ratio ~ 50/50

Females determine the reproductive output of a population

Any individual female typically has higher mating success than any individual male

42
Q

asexual reproduction

A

all/most members of the population can reproduce

reproductive output of the population is higher because more individuals reproduce

43
Q

what evidence is there that sex is actually good from an evolutionary standpoint?

A

1) ubiquity
- seen in most eukaryotes
- other modes of recombination prevalent in prokaryotes

2) longevity of sexual lineages compared to asexual lineages
- most exclusively or primarily asexual organisms relatively recently derived from a sexual ancestor

44
Q

why do organisms have sex?

A

sex is advantageous because recombination is advantageous in the long term if not in the short term

45
Q

sex and more variability

A
  • sex facilitates the generation of novel combinations of alleles more readily than mutation alone
  • sex disrupts linkage disequilibrium through crossing over and thus facilitates novel allele combinations more than mutation alone
  • variability hypotheses are associated with variable or fluctuating environments
46
Q

sex and fewer lethals

A

sex may help to hide or purge deleterious alleles (or even those that just have low fitness) from the general population

47
Q

what are benefits of sex?

A
  • more variability

- few lethals

48
Q

what is Muller’s ratchet?

A

deleterious alleles will accumulate in an asexual population over time if mutations from “bad” back to “good” or “neutral” are rare

the number of individuals with 0 low-fitness mutations will decrease from generation to generation as mutation load increases

49
Q

consequences of Muller’s Ratchet

A
  • over time, the proportion of the population comprised of low-fitness genotypes increases
  • this will decrease the size of the population as genotypes slide off the end of the scale
50
Q

how does migration violate HW?

A

by introducing or removing alleles from the population

migration can maintain genetic diversity in the face of natural selection or genetic drift

51
Q

mutations through generations

A

in the first generation there are a few individuals with no deleterious mutations

over time, all subsets of the population acquire mutations so the “zero” class gets eliminated the the “1” class becomes the strain with the smallest mutation load

over even more time, all subsets of the population acquire mutations so that the “1” class gets eliminated and the “2” class becomes the strain with the smallest mutation load

52
Q

mutation meltdown and sex

A

the “speed” of the ratchet increases with decreasing population size

combined effect of Muller’s ratchet and drift leads to “mutation meltdown” and extinction

sex “reconstitutes” low-load genotypes through recombination and independent assortment

53
Q

what happens when there’s gene flow from a large population to a small population?

A

when there’s gene flow/migration from the large “source” population to a small “sink” population:

1) gene flow from source creates genetic variation
2) selection or drift erodes genetic variation
3) gene flow restores genetic variation

54
Q

is evolution random?

A

some aspects of evolution are random

1) mutation: ultimate source of all genetic variation
2) genetic drift: random change in gene frequencies between generation
3) migration/gene flow: can result in random gene flow in/out of population

natural selection is not random
1) differential non-random survival and reproduction but only natural selection can explain adaptive evolution

55
Q

what are the 4 mechanisms for microevolutionary change

A

1) mutation
2) genetic drift
3) migration/gene flow
4) natural selection

these cause change in gene frequencies across generations

Biology 1114 (18 decks)

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