week 1

Question 1

what are homologies

Answer 1

similarities between organisms due to common ancestry

Question 2

what are analogies

Answer 2

similarities due to parallel selective pressures

Question 3

Darwins theory in a nutshell

Answer 3

1. variation
2. heredity
3. competition
4. natural selection

Question 4

what is the modern synthesis

Answer 4

when in the 1930’s, Mendel was understood to provide the mechanism for Darwin’s theory to work and so the mathematical foundations of evolutionary theory worked out.

Question 5

how are the adaptations of organisms to their environment best explained

Answer 5

by non-random retention of beneficial variations cumulating over long periods of time.

Question 6

what is an allele

Answer 6

an alternative form of a gene

if the two alleles from each of the parents are the same that gene is homozygous etc..

Question 7

what is transcription

Answer 7

the process when information in a strand of DNA is copied into a new molecule of mRNA

Question 8

what is translation

Answer 8

comes after transcription, when the code from the mRNA is converted into an amino acid sequence in a protein

Question 9

what are introns

Answer 9

non-coding sequences inserted within the code

Question 10

what are exons

Answer 10

coding sequences

Question 11

what does variation in the phenotype partly arise from

Answer 11

variation in the genotype