3.4.7 - investigating diversity

Question 1

what is interspecific variation?

Answer 1

variation which occurs between species

Question 2

what is intraspecific variation?

Answer 2

variation which occurs within species

Question 3

what can be compared to identify genetic diversity within or between species?

Answer 3

• frequency of measurable or observable characteristics
• base sequence of DNA
• base sequence of mRNA
• amino acid sequence of proteins encoded by DNA and mRNA

Question 4

how has gene technology changed methods of investigating genetic diversity?

Answer 4

inferring DNA differences from measurable or observable characteristics has been replaced by direct investigation of DNA sequences

Question 5

what causes variation?

Answer 5

• genes and alleles
• environment
• both

Question 6

what is discontinuous variation?

Answer 6

when data falls into discrete groups eg. blood group

Question 7

what is continuous variation?

Answer 7

when data consists of a range of values eg. height

Question 8

what is a random sample?

Answer 8

a sample which gives all individuals a chance of selection to avoid bias

Question 9

what is an issue with a random sample?

Answer 9

the individuals chosen by chance may not be representative - using a large sample further reduces the effects of chance

Question 10

what does standard deviation do?

Answer 10

give a measure of spread/variation - the more the standard deviations overlap, the less likely it is that differences are significant