GENERAL BIOLOGY II

Bautista, Caitlin Tish D.

STEM 11-A.Einstein

Biological evolution, simply put, is descent with modification. This definition encompasses small-scale evolution
(changes in gene — or more precisely and technically, allele — frequency in a population from one generation to the
next) and large-scale evolution (the descent of different species from a common ancestor over many generations).
Evolution helps us to understand the history of life.
Evolution is the process by which modern organisms have descended from ancient ancestors. Evolution is responsible
for both the remarkable similarities we see across all life and the amazing diversity of that life — but exactly how does it
work?

Adaptation-a modification of an organism or its parts that makes it more fit for existence. An adaptation is passed from
generation to generation.

Biological Adaptation-physical change in an organism that results over time in reaction to its environment.

Naturalist-person who studies the natural history or natural development of organisms and the environment.

Natural selection- process by which organisms that are better -adapted to their environments produce more offspring to
transmit their genetic characteristics.

-process by which organisms that are better -adapted to their environments produce more offspring to transmit their
genetic characteristics.

-which occurs when populations of organisms are subjected to the environment. The fittest creatures are more likely to
survive and pass their genes to their offspring, producing a population that is better adapted to the environment. The
genes of less-fit individuals are less likely to be passed on to the next generation. The important selective force in
natural selection is the environment.

-Imagine that green beetles are easier for birds to spot (and hence, eat). Brown beetles are a little more likely to survive
to produce offspring. They pass their genes for brown coloration on to their offspring. So, in the next generation, brown
beetles are more common than in the previous generation.

Darwin's grand idea of evolution by natural selection is relatively simple but often misunderstood. To find out how it
works, imagine a population of beetles:

1. There is variation in traits. For example, some beetles are green and some are brown.

2. There is differential reproduction. Since the environment can't support unlimited population growth, not all
individuals get to reproduce to their full potential. In this example, green beetles tend to get eaten by birds and survive
to reproduce less often than brown beetles do

3. There is heredity. The surviving brown beetles have brown baby beetles because this trait has a genetic basis.

4. End result: The more advantageous trait, brown coloration, which allows the beetle to have more offspring, becomes
more common in the population. If this process continues, eventually, all individuals in the population will be brown.

An example of artificial selection - Dog breeding

Dog breeding is a perfect example of how humans select for desirable or fashionable traits. There are three different
types of breeds that exist:

Purebred is a type of dog that comes from a lineage of the same dog breed and that has never mated with another
breed. For example, a purebred german shepherd is all german shepherd and nothing else.
A cross-breed dog is a dog that was the offspring of two different types of purebreds. Let’s say your purebred german
shepherd mated with a purebred husky. The resulting offspring would be a cross-breed of half german shepherd, half
husky.

mixed-breeds are a combination of multiple breeds, where their parents were not purebreds. There are too many
possible combinations to count!

Another mechanism for evolution is genetic drift, which can occur when a small group of individuals leaves a population
and establishes a new one in a geographically isolated region. Fitness of a population is not considered in genetic drift,
nor does genetic drift occur in a very large population.

In each generation, some individuals may, just by chance, leave behind a few more descendent (and genes, of course!)
than other individuals. The genes of the next generation will be the genes of the "lucky" individuals, not necessarily the
healthier or "better" individuals. That, in a nutshell, is genetic drift. It happens to ALL populations — there's no avoiding
the vagaries of chance

Random Drift consists of random fluctuations in the frequency of appearance of a gene, usually, in a small population.
The process may cause gene variants to disappear completely, thereby reducing genetic variability.

The population bottleneck and a founder effect are two examples of random drift that can have significant effects in
small populations.

Bottleneck effect occurs when there is a sudden sharp decline in a population’s size typically due to environmental
factors (natural disasters such as: earthquakes or tsunamis, epidemics that can decimate the number of individuals in
the population, predation or habitat destruction, etc.).

Founder effect is the loss of genetic variation that occurs when a new population is established by a small number of
individuals that are cleaved from a larger population.

-A new population is established by a small number of individuals that are cleaved from the original population.

Artificial selection-also called "selective breeding”, is where humans select for desirable traits in agricultural products or
animals, rather than leaving the species to evolve and change gradually without human interference, like in natural
selection.

Mutations are changes in the DNA. A single mutation can have a large effect, but in many cases, evolutionary change is
based on the accumulation of many mutations.

A single germ line mutation can have a range of effects:

1. No change occurs in phenotype Some mutations don't have any noticeable effect on the phenotype of an organism.
This can happen in many situations: perhaps the mutation occurs in a stretch of DNA with no function, or perhaps the
mutation occurs in a protein-coding region, but ends up not affecting the amino acid sequence of the protein.

2. Small change occurs in phenotype

3. A single mutation caused this cat's ears to curl backwards slightly

4. Big change occurs in phenotype Some really important phenotypic changes, like DDT resistance in insects are
sometimes caused by single mutations. A single mutation can also have strong negative effects for the organism

Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) is an insecticide used in agriculture.

Mutations happen for several reasons.

1. DNA fails to copy accurately Most of the mutations that we think matter to evolution are "naturallyoccurring." For
example, when a cell divides, it makes a copy of its DNA — and sometimes the copy is not quite perfect. That small
difference from the original DNA sequence is a mutation.

2. Mutations can also be caused by exposure to specific chemicals or radiation. These agents cause the DNA to break
down. This is not necessarily unnatural — even in the most isolated and pristine environments, DNA breaks down
Recombination-Occurs during meiosis when chromosomes exchange genes. This process ultimately leads to the
formation of unique gametes with chromosomes that are different from those of parents. This is one of the important
means to promote and increase genetic diversity between generations.

Gene flow-Flow of alleles in and out of a population resulting from the migration of individuals or gametes.

Evolution-Is a process that results in changes in the genetic material of a population over time.

Evolutionary Theory-is the theory used to explain the massive diversity experienced on Earth.

James Hutton

Theory of Gradualism

The evolutionary process in which species experience changes in characteristics slowly

Thomas Malthus

Author of the 1798 book, An Essay on the Principle of Population

Jean Baptiste de Lamarck

Inheritance of Acquired Characteristics

Charles Darwin

On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection

Descent with Modification

Principle of Geology Uniformitarianism

Charles Darwin was best known in the 19th century for making the idea of evolution acceptable for scientists and the
educated general public.

Theory of Use and Disuse is formulated by Lamarck.

. Which condition can be explained by Lamarckism?

a. How giraffes got their long neck

b. How humans lost their tail

c. How humans became bipedal

d. All of the above

Descent with modification-refers to the passing on of traits from parent organisms to their offspring. This passing on of
traits is known as heredity, and the basic unit of heredity is the gene.

Genes are the blueprints for making an organism and, as such, hold information about its every conceivable aspect: its
growth, development, behavior, appearance, physiology, and reproduction.

Evolution described as “descent with modification” by Charles Darwin refers to the species that changed over time,
giving rise to the new species and share a common ancestor.

Although Charles Darwin's name is virtually synonymous with the word evolution, he was not the first person to
recognize the phenomenon of species change nor did he even use the word "evolution" in the original theory he set
forth in On the Origin of Species.

(1809–1882) was born in western England. As a boy, he had a consuming interest in nature. When Darwin was 16, his
father sent him to the University of Edinburgh to study medicine, but he dropped out without a degree and enrolled at
Cambridge University with the intent of becoming a clergyman.

(At that time, most naturalists and scientists belonged to the clergy. After graduation, Darwin joined the crew of the
survey ship HMS Beagle as ship naturalist and conversation companion to Captain Robert FitzRoy. FitzRoy chose Darwin
because of his education and because his age and social class were like those of the captain.

According to Charles Darwin, all species descended from only a few life forms that had been modified over time. This
"descent with modification," as he called it,

The passing on of genes is not always exact. Parts of the blueprints may be copied incorrectly, or in the case of
organisms that undergo sexual reproduction, genes of one parent are combined with the genes of another parent
organism. That is why children are not exact carbon copies of either of their parents.

There are three basic concepts that are helpful in clarifying how descent with modification works:

Natural selection comes into play, according to Darwin, when a species adapts to its environment, thanks to its specific
genetic makeup. Say at some point in time two species of wolves lived in the Arctic:

those with short, thin fur and those with long, thick fur. Those wolves with long, thick fur was genetically capable of
living in the cold. Those with short, thin fur were not.

Therefore, those wolves whose genetics allowed them to live successfully in their environment lived longer, bred more
frequently, and passed on their genetics. They were "naturally selected" to thrive. Those wolves that were not
genetically adapted to the cold eventually died out.

“Species are groups of interbreeding natural populations that are reproductively isolated from other such groups.”

- Is a closely related organism that are very similar and capable of producing fertile offspring. Ernst myer’s definition .

Reproductive Isolating Mechanism – The mechanisms of reproductive isolation are a collection of evolutionary
mechanisms, behaviors and physiological processes critical for speciation. They prevent members of different species
from producing offspring, or ensure that any offspring are sterile. These barriers maintain the integrity of a species by
reducing gene flow between related species.

1. Pre-zygotic isolation mechanism

-prevent fertilization and zygote formation.

- happens before fertilization occurs between gametes.

1.1Geographic or ecological or habitat isolation

- occurs when two species that could interbreed do not because the species live in different areas.

- The two species live in different habitats and will not encounter one another: each is isolated from the other
species.
1.2 Behavioral isolation
- patterns of courtship is different. For example, eastern & western meadowlark songs differ.
1.3 Mechanical isolation
- differences in reproductive organs prevent successful interbreeding. Mechanical isolation occurs when mating is
physically impossible.
1.4 Gametic isolation
- incompatibilities between egg and sperm prevent fertilization. Often this occurs because the female immune
system recognizes sperm as foreign and attacks it.

1.5 Temporal isolation

- means 'isolated in time

- occurs when two populations reproduce at different times of the day or in different seasons, causing speciation
to occur.

2. Post-zygotic isolation mechanisms

2.1 Hybrid inviability

- fertilized egg fails to develop past the early embryonic stages. For example, when tigers and leopards are crossed, the
zygote begins to develop but the pregnancy ends in miscarriage or stillborn

2.2 Hybrid sterility

- Their hybrids are sterile because gonads develop abnormally or there is abnormal segregation of chromosomes during
meiosis. A horse and a donkey may produce a hybrid offspring, a mule. Mules are sterile

2.3 Hybrid breakdown

- F1 hybrids are normal, vigorous and viable, but F2 contains many weak or sterile individuals.

Speciation-is the evolutionary process by which populations evolve to become distinct species. It is the process by which
new species develop from existing species. . Mules are sterile

A. Allopatric speciation or geographic speciation (other place)-occurs when some members of a population
become geographically separated from the other members thereby preventing gene flow. Examples of
geographic barriers are bodies of water and mountain ranges.

B. Sympatric speciation (same place) - occurs when members of a population that initially occupy the same
habitat within the same range diverge into two or more different species. It involves abrupt genetic changes
that quickly lead to the reproductive isolation of a group of individuals. Example is change in chromosome
number (polyploidization).

C. Parapatric speciation (beside each other)- occurs when the groups that evolved to be separate species are
geographic neighbors. Gene flow occurs but with great distances is reduced. There is also abrupt change in the
environment over a geographic border and strong disruptive selection must also happen.