BIO 115

Human evolution

Human evolution

J. M.

J. M.

Kartei Details

Zusammenfassung This flashcard set delves into advanced biological concepts, particularly focusing on aging theories, evolution, and human life history. It explores topics like mutation accumulation, antagonistic pleiotropy, and the rate-of-living theory, which are crucial for understanding aging processes. The set also covers the impact of ecological mortality rates on life spans and the influence of natural selection on aging. Ideal for university students, this flashcard set provides a comprehensive overview of how genetic and environmental factors interact, making it invaluable for those studying evolutionary biology and related fields.
Karten 288
Lernende 1
Sprache English
Kategorie Biologie
Stufe Universität
Erstellt / Aktualisiert 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

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