Selection And Speciation- Paper 2 Flashcards
What are the 3 causes of variations?
- Mutations- causes combination of new alleles which may cause a new phenotype
- Meiosis- caused by independent segregation and crossing over
- Random fertilisation and fusion of Gametes during sexual reproduction
What are features of variation which is caused by genet factors?
It is discontinuous, which produces categoric data and is usually caused by a single gene.
What could a mutation be?
A selective advantage
Neutral as the code is degenerate
A selective disadvantage, inhibits gene and selects against advantageous alleles
What are environmental influences
Abiotic and biotic factors, the environment influences the organism’s phenotype and the way the genes are expressed
Define natural selection
A process by which organisms that are better adapted to their environment survive and reproduce in greater numbers, resulting in the increase of the frequency of the advantageous allele within the population
What determines the spread of an allele within the gene pool
Selection pressures, they are either abiotic or biotic
Stabilising selection
Occurs in populations where the environment is stable
Selection pressures at both ends of distribution
Favours the average
Tends to eliminate extremes
Reduces variability, the size of the range within population
Reduces opportunity for evolutionary change
Directional selection
Mean in population represents optimum phenotype for existing conditions
Environmental change may produce new selection pressures that favour an extreme phenotype
Changed conditions, favour allele combination necessary for survival
Some organisms will possess the new optimum phenotype
Over time selection means this allele combination will predominate and the mean phenotype will shift
Disruptive selection
Environment has selective pressures that favour two extreme phenotypes
When conditions change the optimum phenotypes necessary for survival will also change
Some organisms will possess the new extreme optimum phenotypes
Over time selection of these two extremes will dominate and the mean will shift in both directions
Species definition and facts
The evolution of a new species from an existing species
Species belong in the same gene pool
Two populations must undergo a period of reproductive isolation to become genetically distinct through an accumulation of mutations and different selection pressures
Genetic drift description
Random increase or decrease in allelic frequency, important in small populations where the loss will result in significant change to the frequency. May occur from natural disasters such as volcanic eruption
gene flow description
Change in allelic frequency due to the migration of fertile individuals, such as migration
Allopatric speciation
Geographical isolation- a physical barrier divides a population. Each population may be subjected to different selective pressures,mutations accumulate, change in genotype and phenotype , reproductively isolated, each population has become separate species with its own gene pool
Sympatric selection
Organisms in same area become reproductively separated either from choice of food or choice of season to mate in or become active after hibernation.
Other isolating mechanisms: temporal
Organisms breed at different times of the year