Evolution Blog

  i decided to portray the concept of selection through a monopoly board! (sorry if my hand writing is messy) but to sum it up........ an increase in fitness of selection for the favored allele can lead to an increase in allele frequencies throughout generations a higher fitness in the favored allele can lead to a quick increase in allele frequency in fewer generation population size affects change in the allele frequencies genetic drift can have a stronger effect on smaller population sizes genetic drift is completely random and can lead to variation in the allele frequency a combination of allele frequency, fitness of the selected, population size, and genetic drift all factor into what is selected

s= selection coefficent pq = genetic variation (allele frequencies)  as the overall genetic variation increases, the delta p also increases though, as the individual p allele increases, there is no pattern to be saw

 The Hardy Weinberg Equation is used as a base line to be able to compare gene and allele frequencies. In the Hardy Weinberg Equation, it assumed there is no selection, no mutations, no migration, a large population, and random mating. This creates a null model that we can compare to others seen in the environment. solutions to problem #1 solutions to problem #2                                                                                                                                                             ...

When I started my journey of learning about inheritance, mutation, and genetics I had very little prior knowledge. I had thought inheritance was a simple process of just receiving your parent's genes, which is far from the truth. I always thought mutations had to be a complex process and viewed them in only the aspects of cancer cells.  Through my academic career, I started slowly learning about these different concepts. Through biology and genetic classes, I learned about the intense variation in genes and inheritance due to our genome which is made up of genes. You can find variation across the human genome in various places. This lead to my discovery of the structure of DNA and the base pairs that make up the extraordinary variation. Throughout learning more about DNA and its structure, I started to also learn about mutations. I saw that mutations were simply a change in base pairs. If these base-pair lead to an alteration in the amino acid, this could cause a mutation to occur....

Kin selection is when the fitness of an organism is favored even if it can lead to detrimental effects to the organism’s reproduction and its survival.  Altruistic behavior is known as the increase of fitness of a recipient along with a decrease in the fitness of the donor . This can be seen in nature when organisms share meals or display warning calls.  Hamilton’s rule expresses that altruism is favored by natural selection when  r refers to the related proportion of shared genes B refers to the benefit to recipient.            An example of this would be more offspring. C refers to the cost of the altruist  According to Hamilton’s Rule, if the combined benefit of the recipient and the related proportion of shared genes outweigh the cos t of the altruis t , then natural selection would favor altruistic behavior. 

One very rapid and interesting example of adaptations occurring on a micro-scale is the soapberry bugs. In Florida, the soapberry bugs were once equipped with a long beak . This long beak was inserted into a large seedpod from a native plant to release digestive enzymes to feed on the seeds. This native plant also had varying times when this seedpod was available. This meant the soapberry bugs had to fly from tree to tree for this source of food. soapberry bug with a longer beak size due to a large seed pod   In 1970, a non-native plant was introduced into Florida. This invasive new plant species was very prevalent and flourished throughout Florida. A difference seen in this plant was a now small seedpod . This meant soapberry bugs no longer needed a long beak size to be able to obtain nutrients. In less than 50 years, it is now seen that the beak size of soapberry bugs have decreased to a smaller beak size . It is also shown that is new plant species in Florida have s...

Variations can be seen often when observing phylogenetic trees. These variations can cause a phylogenetic tree not to be as clear or and simple as we would like. The relationships of species and organisms can sometimes be messy and complicated.  One type of variation that can cause change in a phylogenetic tree are paralogs . Paralogs are only similar because of a duplication event , not by a common ancestor. They experience different evolution pressures. These pressures led to the creation of different genes that contribute to overall evolutionary change.  An example of these can be found in our own bodies, hemoglobin. Hemoglobin is 4 different polypeptide chains This is because hemoglobin is the product of multiple genes .  Below is a rough sketch of a phylogenetic tree for hemoglobin Each branch can demonstrate a duplication event of the original globin. The combination of these duplication events led to variation and the overall creation of hemoglobin.