Species And Taxonomy Flashcards
What does it mean for two organisms to be in the same species
Can interbreed in their natural habitat to produce fertile offspring.
What is courtship
A behaviour that eventually results in mating and reproduction
Can be simple involving a number of visual and chemical stimuli
What plays a major role in species recognition
Courtship
How to tell between different species of drosophila flies
Have different courtship rituals
The sequence of these is controlled by various genes so determines what species it is.
What is the phylogenetic system of taxonomy
Arranges organisms into groups based on their evolutionary origins and relationships.
What is each group called
A taxon
There is no overlap between groups
Why is grouping organisms necessary
Scientists can communicate clearly about different species
Knowledge that applies to one species can often be partially applied to other closely related species
Allows scientists to gain an accurate count of the number of species
Taxonomical groups in order of size
Domain
Kingdom
Phylum
Class
Order
Family
Genus
Species
When does biological classification change
As more molecular analysis is completed
Meaning that phylogenetic classification is becoming more accurate over time.
Taxonomical ranks explained
Species is the lowest rank
Similar species can be grouped in a genus
Similar genera can be grouped in a family
Similar families can be grouped into an order
Similar orders can be grouped into a class
Similar classes can be grouped into phylum
Similar phylum can be grouped into a kingdom
Similar kingdoms can be grouped into a domain
Rhyme to help you remember the hierarchy of taxonomical ranks
Kings play chess on fancy gold squares
What are the different domains an organism can be classified into
Eukarya
Bacteria
Archeae
What does eukarya apply to
Eukaryotic organisms
What is a binomial
The scientific name for a species
How do binomials work
First genus then species name
In modern Latin
Eg. Homosapiens
What are the 3 types of sequence data that are used to investigate evolutionary relationships
DNA
MRNA
Amino acids
What does sequencing technology do
Determines the order of DNA bases , mRNA bases and amino acids within an organisms genome
Useful to compare with an extinct species or when distinguishing between species that are physically similar
How do scientists use genome sequencing
Choose specific proteins or sections of the genome for comparison between organisms.
Do this multiple times for a more accurate estimate of evolutionary relatedness
Relationship between similar sequences of DNA in different organisms and the similarity in species
It is said that the more similar the sequences, the more recently the species separated and species will be more similar
Those that have been separated a long time have time to accumulate mutations
What is another method to compare the familiarity of species
Proteins of the organisms can be compared with immunological techniques
Method of using immunology to distinguish between species
Pure albumin samples are extracted from the blood samples from MULTIPLE species
Each albumin sample is injected into a different rabbit
Each rabbit produces antibodies for that specific type of albumen
The different antibodies are extracted from the different rabbits and mixed with albumin solutions
The precipitate from each sample is weighed
Results of immunology to distinguish between species
The greater the weight of the precipitate , the greater the degree of complementarity between the antibody and albumin
Eg. Antibodies produced against human albumin will produce a larger amount of precipitate when exposed to chimpanzee albumin than when exposed to rat albumin.
