Mechanisms of Evolution

Descent with modification

 Evolution only occurs when there is a change in gene

frequency within a population over time.
 These genetic differences are heritable and can be passed
on to the next generation — which is what really matters
in evolution: long term change.
Compare these two examples of change in beetle
populations.

Which one is an example of evolution?

1. Beetles on a diet
Imagine a year or two of drought in which there are few plants that these beetles can eat.

All the beetles have the same chances of survival and reproduction, but because of food
restrictions, the beetles in the population are a little smaller than the preceding generation of
beetles.

2. Beetles of a different color

Most of the beetles in the population (say 90%) have the genes for bright green coloration and a
few of them (10%) have a gene that makes them more brown.

Some number of generations later, things have changed: brown beetles are more common than
they used to be and make up 70% of the population.
Mechanisms of change
Genetic variation
 Without genetic variation, some of the basic mechanisms of evolutionary
change cannot operate.
 There are three primary sources of genetic variation, which we will learn
more about:

1. 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.
2. Gene flow is any movement of genes from one population to another and is
an important source of genetic variation.
3. Sex can introduce new gene combinations into a population. This genetic
shuffling is another important source of genetic variation.
Mutations
 Mutation is a change in DNA, the hereditary material of life. An organism's DNA
affects how it looks, how it behaves, and its physiology — all aspects of its life. So
a change in an organism's DNA can cause changes in all aspects of its life.
 Mutations are random
Mutations can be beneficial, neutral, or harmful for the organism, but mutations
do not "try" to supply what the organism "needs." In this respect, mutations
are random — whether a particular mutation happens or not is unrelated to how
useful that mutation would be.
 Not all mutations matter to evolution
Since all cells in our body contain DNA, there are lots of places for mutations to
occur; however, not all mutations matter for evolution. Somatic mutations occur
in non-reproductive cells and won't be passed onto offspring.
For example, the golden color on half of Red apple was caused by a somatic
mutation. The seeds of this apple do not carry the mutation.
The causes of mutations
 DNA fails to copy accurately
 Most of the mutations that we think matter to evolution are "naturally-
occurring." 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.
 External influences can create mutations
 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.
Nevertheless, when the cell repairs the DNA, it might not do a perfect job of
the repair. So the cell would end up with DNA slightly different than the
original DNA and hence, a mutation.
Gene flow
 Gene flow— also called migration — is any movement of individuals, and/or
the genetic material they carry, from one population to another. Gene flow
includes lots of different kinds of events, such as pollen being blown to a new
destination or people moving to new cities or countries.
 If gene versions are carried to a population where those gene versions
previously did not exist, gene flow can be a very important source of genetic
variation.
 In the graphic below, the gene version for brown coloration moves from one
population to another.
Genetic shuffling/recombination
 Sex can introduce new gene combinations into a
population and is an important source of genetic
variation.
 When organisms reproduce sexually, some genetic
"shuffling" occurs, bringing together new combinations
of genes. These combinations can be good, bad, or
neutral.
 This shuffling is important for evolution because it can
introduce new combinations of genes every generation.
However, it can also break up "good" combinations of
genes.
 Recombination is a process by which pieces of DNA are
broken and recombined to produce new combinations of
alleles. This recombination process creates genetic
diversity at the level of genes that reflects differences
in the DNA sequences of different organisms.
Genetic drift
 Genetic drift — along with natural selection, mutation, and migration — is one of
the basic mechanisms of evolution.
 In each generation, some individuals may, just by chance, leave behind a few more
descendants (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.
 Genetic drift affects the genetic makeup of the population but, unlike natural
selection, through an entirely random process. So although genetic drift is a
mechanism of evolution, it doesn't work to produce adaptations.
Artificial selection
 Long before Darwin and Wallace, farmers and
breeders were using the idea of selection to
cause major changes in the features of their
plants and animals over the course of decades.
 Farmers and breeders allowed only the plants
and animals with desirable characteristics to
reproduce, causing the evolution of farm stock.
 This process is called artificial selection because
people (instead of nature) select which
organisms get to reproduce.
 Farmers have cultivated numerous popular crops
from the wild mustard, by artificially selecting
for certain attributes.
 These common vegetables were cultivated from
forms of wild mustard. This is evolution through
artificial selection.
Natural selection
 Natural selection is one of the basic mechanisms of evolution, along with
mutation, migration, and genetic drift.
 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.

Eventually, the advantageous trait dominates

Misconceptions about natural
selection
 Natural selection is not all-powerful; it does not produce perfection. If your genes
are "good enough," you'll get some offspring into the next generation — you don't
have to be perfect. This should be pretty clear just by looking at the populations
around us: people may have genes for genetic diseases, plants may not have the
genes to survive a drought, a predator may not be quite fast enough to catch her
prey every time she is hungry. No population or organism is perfectly adapted.
 It is more accurate to think of natural selection as a process rather than as a guiding
hand. Natural selection is the simple result of variation, differential reproduction,
and heredity — it is mindless and mechanistic. It has no goals; it's not striving to
produce "progress" or a balanced ecosystem.
 "need," "try," and "want" are not very accurate words
when it comes to explaining evolution.
 Natural selection just selects among whatever
variations exist in the population. The result is
evolution.
 Natural selection is sometimes interpreted as a
random process. This is also a misconception.
 The genetic variation that occurs in a population
because of mutation is random — but selection acts
on that variation in a very non-random way: genetic
variants that aid survival and reproduction are much
more likely to become common than variants that
don't.
 Natural selection is NOT random!
Evolutionary Thought
Pre-Darwinian Theories
 Plato
Greeks believed that the stripes of zebras was created at the beginning of time and
remained exactly the same ever since life on Earth has begun.
 Aristotle
He recognized that organisms on Earth are related to one another in a hierarchy from
the simple to complex forms. This thought has dominated the scientific community
for nearly 2000 years.
 George-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon (1707-1788)
He proposed that a comet may have struck the sun and in the process its debris
became the planets of the solar system. In 1749, he was one of those who openly
suggested that closely related species may have arisen from a common ancestor.
According to him, the change may have evolved due to changes in the environment or
even by chance.
 Erasmus Darwin
The grandfather of Charles Darwin, who also believed that evolution could occur only
in living organisms as well as in humans. However, it was unclear to him how
evolution might occur in organisms. He translated his ideas on evolution through
poems and a two-volume scientific publication titled Zoonomia or the Laws of Organic
Life in the 1794. He argued that life may have started evolving long before the start
of the history of mankind.
 Jean Baptiste Lamarck (1744-1829)
A French naturalist, who proposed the idea that species, including humans,
descended from the other species. He attributed the change to natural laws and
proposed a mechanism of how it can all happen.
Lamarck believed on two mechanisms: that the physical desire of an animal
determines how the body will develop into something, and that changes in organ size
caused by its use or disuse can be inherited by offspring. Disuse of a certain body part
may weaken the organ and could lead to its disappearance. This particular hypothesis
by Lamarck was then called by the scientists as the theory of acquired
characteristics.
 Darwin found that nearby islands in the Galápagos had similar but non
identical species of finches living on them.
 Moreover, he noted that each finch species was well-suited for its
environment and role.
 For instance, species that ate large seeds tended to have large, tough
beaks, while those that ate insects had thin, sharp beaks.
 Finally, he observed that the finches (and other animals) found on the
Galápagos Islands were similar to species on the nearby mainland of
Ecuador, but different from those found elsewhere in the world.
 According to Darwin's idea, this pattern would make sense if the Galápagos
Islands had long ago been populated by birds from the neighboring mainland.
 On each island, the finches might have gradually adapted to local conditions
(over many generations and long periods of time). This process could have led
to the formation of one or more distinct species on each island.
 If this idea was correct, though, why was it correct? What mechanism could
explain how each finch population had acquired adaptations, or features that
made it well-suited to its immediate environment?
 During his voyage, and in the years after, Darwin developed and refined a set
of ideas that could explain the patterns he had observed during his voyage. In
his book, On the Origin of Species, Darwin outlined his two key ideas:
evolution and natural selection.
 Darwin proposed that species can change over time, that new species come from
pre-existing species, and that all species share a common ancestor. In this
model, each species has its own unique set of heritable (genetic) differences
from the common ancestor, which have accumulated gradually over very long
time periods.
 Repeated branching events, in which new species split off from a common
ancestor, produce a multi-level "tree" that links all living organisms.
 Darwin referred to this process, in which groups of organisms change in their
heritable traits over generations, as “descent with modification." Today, we call
it evolution.