What is the gene pool?
The complete range of alleles present in a population
What is allele frequency?
How often alleles occur in a population
How may evolution occur?
Natural selection
What is selection in a stable environment called?
Stabilising selection. This is when alleles increase in the middle range and decreases the range of possible phenotypes
What is it called when selection occurs in a changing environment?
Directional selection. This is when the most advantageous alleles change so other individuals are most likely to survive
What is a population?
A group of individuals of species living together and being close enough to Interbreed.
What is genetic drift?
Genetic drift is random fluctuations in allele frequency.
. Individuals show variation within their genotype
. By chance, the allele for one genotype is passed on to the offspring more often than others so the gene pool changes
. If by chance the allele is passed on more again and again, the allele will become more common in the population.
When does genetic drift have more of an impact than natural selection for evolution?
In smaller populations
What is a genetic bottleneck?
An event leading to a large decrease in population size and therefore gene pool. When the population increases, alleles may not recover.
Evolution by genetic drift has a larger effect if there is a genetic bottleneck
What is the founder effect?
This is when a few organisms from a population start a new population and there is only a small number of different alleles. By chance they will mostly have one particular genotype. This is more influenced by genetic drift
How does the founder effect occur?
The result of migration leading to geographical separation
What is the hardy-weinberg principle?
A model which predicts that the frequency of alleles in a population wont change for one generation to the next. This is only true under certain conditions:
. Needs to be a large population that is closed
. Needs to be random mating
What can the hardy weinberg equation be used for?
To estimate the frequency of alleles and genotypes
How do you work out allele frequency?
The equation p+q=1
P is dominant
Q is recessive
They must add up to one
What equation do you use to work out genotype frequency?
P²+2pq+q²=1
What is artificial selection?
When humans select individuals in a population and breed together to get desirable characteristics
How is artificial selection of milk cows done?
. Farmers select a very high milk yield female and a male whose mother had high yield and breed them
. They select the offspring with highest yield and breed together
. This is done over several generations
What characteristics do milk cows want
. High quality milk
. Long lactation period
. Large udders
. Resistance to mastitis (inflammation of udders)
. Calm temperament
What can artificial selection be done by now?
Artificial insemination
IVF
Animal cloning
What is flour produced from?
Bread wheat (Triticum aestivum). It produces high yield of wheat
Hat other characteristics are selected for in bread wheat?
. Higher tolerance of the cold
. Short stalks so they dont collapse under weight
. Uniform stalk heights to make harvesting easier.
Plant cloning may be easier to accomplish this
What are the issues with artificial selection?
Reduced the gene pool:
Same alleles are bred together. This causes issues as it could lead to less resistance of specific diseases and mean potentially useful alleles are lost. It means genetic material may be lost
Problems for organisms:
It may exaggerate certain traits, leading to health issues. This is also linked to ethical issues
What is Interbreeding?
Breeding with close relatives
What is outbreeding?
Breeding of unrelated individuals