Variation Flashcards
What is mutation?
Mutation is a random change in DNA and can be caused by environmental factors; e.g. UV radiation can result in skin cancer, tar from cigarette smoke can cause lung cancer.
What is variation?
Differences that occur both between different species and within the same species.
Variation can be caused by both genetics and environmental factors.
What are inherited characteristics?
Characteristics that are only determined by genes, such as natural eye colour, blood group and earlobe shape.
What are acquired characteristics?
Characteristics that are not inherited but depend on environmental factors, such as scars and hair length.
What are Genotypes?
The full set of arrangement of alleles of an organism.
What are Phenotypes?
All the observable characteristics of an organism.
What are discontinuous variation?
A feature that cannot be measured but is one of a few distinct options, e.g. tongue rolling, blood group (either: A, B, AB or O). Affected only by genes and illustrated via bar chart.
What are continuous variation?
A feature that can be measured and given a value from a range of values e.g. weight, height. Affected by both genetics and environmental factors and illustrated via a histogram.
What is mutation?
random change in DNA that can cause genetic variation. Causes can include UV radiation or tar in cigarette smoke.
