BIO 115
Human evolution
Human evolution
Set of flashcards Details
Flashcards | 288 |
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Language | English |
Category | Biology |
Level | University |
Created / Updated | 23.01.2021 / 24.01.2021 |
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Definition: Evolution
- Change in the properties/traits of organsims over the course of generations -> passed via genetic material from one to the next generation (evolutionary changes)
- Several populations derived from common ancestor
Definition: Ontogeny
- Development of new organisms (IS NOT EVOLUTION)
Examples: Natural selection/evolution
- Antibiotic resistance -> same bacteria from the 50s are back but resistant to antibiotics
- HIV -> two sources from same ancestor with different traits (HIV1 from chimpanzees and HIV2 from Sooty mangabey)
- Senescence -> natural ageing process
- Model organisms -> mice, drosophila etc.
Evolution Theories: Plato
- Eidos: supernatural ideal imperfectly imitated by humans
- Variation is accidental imperfection
- Species have fixed properties
Evolution Theories: Christians
- Species created by God in similar form as tody
- God's creation follows a plan
- Great chain of being: angels >humans > higher form of life > invertebrates > plants > barely animate forms of life > inanimate objects
Evolution Theories: Caraolus Linnaeus
- Systema naturae -> classification of animals and plants
- Science was to catalogue God's creation
- Related species -> genera
- Similarities -> populations as one group
Evolution Theories: Lamarck
- Theory of organic progression -> Transformation of species
- First coherent theory of evolution
- Species originate out of nothing -> spontaneous creation
- Lamarckism -> Inheritance of acquired characteristics
- Species differ because of different needs -> nervous fluid in organs triggers growth e.g. neck of giraffes
Evolution Theories: Charles Darwin
- Variational evolution
- Explorer ship -> mocking birds are diffrent on different islands
- Different lineages from single ancestor
- Evolution is not goal-oriented
Darwin's two breakthroughs
- Descent with modification -> ancestor
- Natural selection -> survival of the fittest (struggle of life)
Difference Lamarck and Darwin
Lamarck: Transformational evolution -> e.g. all giraffes developped longer necks to be better adapted
Darwin: Variational evolution -> there is variation in the neck length of giraffes and those who were best adapted produced better adapted offspring (Natural selection)
What are the five theories in Darwin's evolution theory?
- Characteristics of organsisms change over time
- Common descent
- Gradualism -> incremental evolution, evolution does not happen over night
- Populational change -> Change in proportions of individuals that have different characteristics
- Natural selection -> Ability to survive and reproduce as a result of changes in adaptions
Definition: Phylogeny
- History of events by which taxa have originated from common ancestor
- Describes the history of species, gene families, tumors, cell lineages, languages and DNA sequences
- Each branch point (node) is division of ancestral lineage
- Humans and great apes are cousins (we did not descend from apes)
Similarity vs. relationship
- Phenotypic similarity is not the same as phylogenetic similarity
- Example: Crocodiles and birds share a more recent ancestor but look very different as birds underwent more evolutionary changes than crocodiles
Principle of parsimony
- Demonstrates which tree of phylogeny is the likeliest
- Tree that takes the fewest evolutionary changes is the most likeliest
Definition: Reticulation
- Joining of separate lineages into one e.g. hybridization -> genes have moved horizontally between organsims
Reconstruction of phylogeny in humans
- Analysis of the mitchondrial DNA (mtDNA) -> inherited only by the mother (maternal inheritance) -> female history -> common ancstor in woman in Africa (120kya)
- Coalescence analysis -> looking for haploid markers -> all variants coaelsce (unite) in one lineage
Where is most human genetic diversity found?
- In Africa
- genetic split much deeper in most Africans compared to non-Africans
- Most recent common ancestor -> 120kya
Difference between homologous and analogous
- Homologous characteristics: traits among species that are derived from a common ancestor (with or without evolutionary change) e.g. four limbs in vertebrates
- Analogous: Changes to the structure/function of these traits e.g. development of wings
Definition: Convergent evolution
- Traits/Characteristics that look very similar but work differently e.g. eyes of vertebrates -> structurally different
Definition: Homoplasy
- Characteristic/trait that was developped independently from each other e.g. tasmanian tiger and wolve
- Homoplasy includes convergent evolution
- Result of similar adaptions in different lineages
Definition: Adaptive radiation
- Numerous related lineages arises in short-time e.g. beaks of birds vary in shape and function -> the different beaks are highly adapted to food sources
- Adaption to different habitats
- Most common pattern of long-term evolution
What were Darwin's difficulties/problems?
- Evolution is the result of accumulated small changes over a long period of time -> couldn't convince people to believe in his theory (1800 steps for a 1%)
- Blending inheritance and selection would deplete variations -> natural selection can't continue
Definition: Blending inheritance
- Characteristics of offspring are an average of the characteristics of their parents
- Each parent provides a hereditary substance that mixes (blends)
- With blending inheritance -> there is no variaton in offspring of two parents -> all F1 are equal
Gregor Mendel
- isolated two variants of the common garden pea -> yellow and green
- offspring in F1 was all yellow -> F2 was 1/4 green -> blending inheritance not true
Mitosis
- Ordinary cell division -> creates two copies of the chromosome (diploid)
Meiosis
- Special cell division -> creates haploid gametes (only one copy of chromosome)
- Paternal and maternal gamete form a zygote
What happened in Mendel's experiments?
- homozygous parents created heterozygrous offspring -> the allele of one parent is dominant / the allele of one parent is recessive compared to the one of the other parent -> heterozygous genotype but phenotype is the same in F1
- 3:1 ratio in phenotypes in F2
- 1:2:1 ration in genotypes in F2
What is the Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium?
- if allele frequencies doe not change over time -> population is in Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium and would stay there forever
- If not -> evolutionary forces might be at work e.g. natural selection, drift etc.
Gene mixing by recombination
- Genes that are not on the same chromosome segragate independently
- If genes on same chromosome -> during meiosis recombination can occur when chromosomes overlap -> gametes are recombined with information from both chromosomes
- the furhter the distance between two genes the likelier the recombination -> recombination rate r (maximized at 0.5)
Definition: Linkage disequilibrium
- Two loci are found inherited together more than expected by chance
Mutations
- changes in genetic information after DNA replication
- Germ line: inherited; Soma: non-inherited
- Point mutations: SNP
- Structural mutations: Deletions, Insertions, Inversions, Translocations
- Genome duplication
When do mutations mostly occur?
- During DNA replication
- mutation rate humans: 10**(-8) -> around 30 mutations every time a gamete is made
Why are genes longer than their mRNA products?
- Contain regulatory sequences -> enhancers and silencers
- Promoter region -> initiation of transcription
- Exons -> actual coding sequence
- Introns -> buffer against mutations (get spliced out)
- Termination region -> transcription is terminated
Three characteristics of the genetic code and codons
- redundant -> multiple codons specify the same amino acid
- unambiguous -> no codon specifies more than one amino acid
- ancient -> same code in all organsims
Definition: Pleiotropic effects
- Single mutation (SNP) affects multiple traits e.g. Achondroplasia "dwarfism"
- All mutations that have phenotypic effects show pleiotropy
Definition: Fitness
- Number of offspring an individual leaves to the next generation
How mutations affect fitness
- most mutations do not influence the fitness
- if they do -> they are deleterious -> bad for the fitness
- rarely benefical mutations that might spread by natural selection
Examples: Natural selection in the wild
- Industrial melanism -> melanic mutaton of moth -> became black during the peak years of the industrial revolution -> declined again from the 1960s onwards as pollution reduced
Examples: Natural selection cockroaches
- mutant cockroach type developed a bitter receptor towards sugar/glucose -> hence they avoided the traps
Examples: Artificial selection
- if humans select artificially by traits -> rapid evolution
- three strains of chicken -> average weight of 56 day old chicken is more than 4-fold