Lecture 5

Question 1

What is the norm of reaction?

Answer 1

the set of phenotypic expressions of a genotype under different environmental conditions

Question 2

What is phenotypic plasticity?

Answer 2

the capacity of an organism to develop any of several phenotypic states, depending on the environment; usually this capacity is assumed to be adaptive

Question 3

What is a trade off?

Answer 3

the existence of both a fitness benefit and a fitness cost of a mutation or character state, relative to another

Question 4

What are the types of trade offs?

Answer 4

physiological trade-offs
micro-evolutionary trade-offs
macro-evolutionary trade-offs

Question 5

What is smith and fretwells model on optimal size?

Answer 5

the optimal compromise between size and number of offspring on a good host and a poor host, we assume a trade-off between size and number of offspring

Question 6

What are microevolutionary trade-offs

Answer 6

• apparent in populations under natural selection
• increase in one trait, results in a decrease in another trait
• include and mostly are physiological trade-offs
• genetic variation present (maintenance of variation)