WEEK 3 Flashcards
Adoption study
A behaviour genetic research method that involves comparison of adopted children to their adoptive and biological parents
Behavioural genetics
The empirical science of how genes and environments combine to generate behaviour.
Heritability coefficient
An easily misinterpreted statistical construct the purports to measure the role of genetics in the explanation of differences among individuals.
Quantitative genetics
Scientific and mathematical methods for inferring genetic and environmental processes based on the degree of genetic and environmental similarity among organisms.
Twin stipules
A behaviour genetic research method that involves comparison to the similarity of identical (monozygotic) and fraternal (dizygotic) twins.
Adaptations
Evolved solution to problems that historically contributed to reproductive success.
Error management theory (EMT)
A theory of selection under conditions of uncertainty in which recurrent cost asymmetries of judgement or inference favour the evolution of adaptive cognitive biases that function to minimize the more costly errors.
Evolution
Change over time
Gene selection theory
The modern theory of evolution by selection by which differential gene replication is the defining process of evolutionary change.
Intersexual selection
A process of sexual selection by which evolution occurs as a consequence of the mate preferences of one sex exerting selection pressure on members of the opposite sex.
Intrasexual competition
A process of sexual selection by which members of one sex compete with each other, and the victors gain preferential mating access to members of the opposite sex.
Natural selection
Differential reproductive success as a consequence of differences in heritable attributes.
Psychological adaptations
Mechanisms of the mind that evolved to solve specific problems of survival or reproduction; conceptualized as information processing devices.
Sexual selection
The evolution of characteristics because of the mating advantage they give organisms.
Sexual strategies theory
A comprehensive evolutionary theory of human mating that defines the menu of mating strategies humans pursue, the adaptive problems women and men face when pursuing these strategies, and the evolved solutions to these mating problems.
DNA methylation
Covalent modifications of mammalian DNA occurring via the methylation of cytosine, typically in the context of CpG dinucleotide.
DNA methyltransferases (DNMTs)
Enzymes that establish and maintain DNA methylation using methyl-group donor compounds or cofactors, The main mammalian DNMTs are DNMT1m which maintains methylation state across DNA replication, and DNMT3a and DNMT3b, which perform de novo methylation.
Epigenetics
The study of heritable changes in gene expression or cellular phenotype caused by mechanisms other than changes in the underlying DNA sequence. Epigenetic marks include covalent DNA modifications and post translational histone modifications.
Epigenome
The genome-wide distribution of epigenetic marks.
Gene
A specific deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) sequence that codes for a specific polypeptide to protein or an observable inherited trait.
Genome-wide association study (GWAS)
A study that maps DNA polymorphisms in affected individuals and controls matched for age, sex, and ethnic background with the aim of identifying casual genetic variants.
Genotype
The DNA content of a cell’s nucleus, whether a trait is externally observable or not.
His tone acetyltranferases (HATs) and his tone deacetylases (HDACs)
HATs are enzymes that transfer acetyl groups to specific positions on histone tails, promoting an “open” chromatic state and transcriptional activation. HDACs remove these acetyl groups, resulting in a “closed” chromatin state and transcriptional repression.
Histone modifications
Posttranslational modifications of the N-terminal “tails” of histone proteins that serve as a major mode of epigenetics regulation. These modifications include acetylation, phosphorylation, methylation, sumoylation, ubiquitination, and ADP-ribosylation.
Identical twins
Two individual organisms that originated from the same zygote and therefore or genetically identical or very similar. The epigientic profiling of identical twins discordant for disease is a unique experimental design as it eliminates the DNA sequence-, age-, and sex-differences from consideration.
Phenotype
The pattern of expression of the genotype or the magnitude or extent to which it is observable expressed - an observable characteristic or trait of an organism, such as its morphology, development, biochemical, or physiological properties, or behaviour.
