Variation

Question 1

What are the 2 types of variation?

What do these mean?

Answer 1

Interspecific and intraspecific
Interspecific means variation between different species. Eg humans vary from ducks
Intraspecific means nariation within a species. Eg varying giraffe length necks

Question 2

What two factors can cause variation?

Answer 2

Environmental and genetic
Genetic variation is variation of the genotype of an organism (its genetic makeup, collection of genes)
Environmental variation is variation affected by the environment eg amount of nutrients in the soil for plants.

These both affect the organism’s phenotype (appearance)

Question 3

What are the 3 ways variation increases in a population through mitosis

Answer 3

1) crossover of alleles in meiosis
2) Independent assortment of chromosomes in meiosis
3) Random fertilisation of gametes - random sperm that fertilises the egg

Question 4

How does mutation cause variation?

Answer 4

Mutation is a change in the base sequence of DNA. This will then change the amino acid sequence in protein synthesis. This will change the protein’s tertiary shape. This can be harmful to the organism but can sometime be beneficial.