BIOL 359 Final Notes - Evolution
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Questions and Answers

What refers to mating among closely related individuals and can lead to a deficiency of heterozygotes?

  • Inbreeding (correct)
  • Positive assortative mating
  • Outbreeding
  • Negative assortative mating

    • What is the result of inbreeding on population fitness?

  • Inbreeding depression (correct)
  • Increased genetic diversity
  • Enhanced allele frequencies
  • Positive assortative mating effects

    • Which type of mating occurs more frequently between individuals with dissimilar phenotypes?

  • Positive assortative mating
  • Outbreeding
  • Inbreeding
  • Negative assortative mating (correct)

    • How does outbreeding affect Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium?

    <p>It leads to heterozygote excesses</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the genetic rescue effect?

    <p>Restoration of genetic diversity to improve population fitness</p> Signup and view all the answers

    Which factor is a concern for conservationists regarding population dynamics?

    <p>Small population size</p> Signup and view all the answers

    Positive assortative mating typically results in which of the following?

    <p>Heterozygote deficit</p> Signup and view all the answers

    Which of the following statements is true regarding inbreeding?

    <p>It converts heterozygotes into homozygotes.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What contributes to an individual's evolutionary fitness?

    <p>Viability, sexual selection, and fecundity</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is antagonistic selection?

    <p>When selective elements act in opposition to each other</p> Signup and view all the answers

    According to Darwin's theory, what is true about offspring production?

    <p>Only a fraction of offspring survive and reproduce</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What defines an adaptation in an evolutionary context?

    <p>A trait that improves fitness compared to others</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What does natural selection not produce?

    <p>Completely new organisms</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is meant by excess fecundity?

    <p>Producing more offspring than can survive</p> Signup and view all the answers

    Which statement reflects a key point of Darwin's theory of natural selection?

    <p>Certain traits become favored in different generations</p> Signup and view all the answers

    Which of the following statements about viability selection is true?

    <p>It relates to the ability to survive to reproductive age</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What does a calculated Chi-Square test statistic greater than the critical value indicate?

    <p>There is statistical evidence to reject the null hypothesis.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the formula for calculating heterozygosity in a population?

    <p>Number of heterozygotes/Total number of individuals</p> Signup and view all the answers

    How do you determine the degrees of freedom in a Chi-Square test for genotype frequencies?

    <p>Number of different genotypes - Number of parameters estimated</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What does a much lower observed heterozygosity than expected suggest?

    <p>There is a heterozygote deficit.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    Which of the following is NOT considered an evolutionary mechanism?

    <p>Random mating</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What happens when the null hypothesis of Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium is accepted?

    <p>There is no significant difference between observed and expected genotype frequencies.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    Which statement about the Chi-Square test is true?

    <p>It compares observed data to theoretical values.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    In the context of Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium, which scenario would likely cause a heterozygote excess?

    <p>Positive selection for heterozygotes.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is sequence saturation?

    <p>When changes between two DNA sequences do not increase observed differences.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    Which statement accurately describes the Neighbour-Joining algorithm?

    <p>It generates a single tree from distance data quickly.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What does homoplasy signify in DNA sequences?

    <p>A character that appeared independently in different taxa.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    Which of the following best describes synapomorphy?

    <p>A shared derived character state due to common inheritance.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    In constructing phylogenetic trees, what does the Principle of Parsimony favor?

    <p>Fewer evolutionary steps to simplify relationships.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What does the term 'apomorphy' refer to?

    <p>A character state different from the ancestral state.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    Which of the following is a disadvantage of the Neighbour-Joining algorithm?

    <p>It produces a single tree from multiple possibilities without evaluation.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the significance of optimality criteria in phylogenetics?

    <p>They offer sophisticated approaches for constructing phylogenetic trees.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the primary understanding of phenotypic plasticity?

    <p>It refers to the ability of a genotype to express different phenotypes under varying environmental conditions.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    Which criterion is central to the Biological Species Concept?

    <p>Reproductive isolation and interbreeding among populations.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    Which of the following presents a limitation of the Biological Species Concept?

    <p>It cannot apply to fossil taxa.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What defines a species according to the Phylogenetic Species Concept?

    <p>Populations with a common evolutionary history.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What does allopatric divergence primarily involve?

    <p>The physical isolation of populations leading to genetic drift.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is meant by sympatric speciation?

    <p>Divergence of populations in the same geographic area without physical barriers.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is a challenge associated with the Phylogenetic Species Concept?

    <p>It often underestimates species diversity.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What usually initiates the process of allopatric divergence?

    <p>The physical isolation of populations, halting gene flow.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What occurs when an allele moves to a frequency of 1 within a population?

    <p>The population has become fixed for that allele.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    Which term describes when the heterozygote has the highest fitness in a two-allele system?

    <p>Heterozygote superiority</p> Signup and view all the answers

    How does migration impact allele frequencies in populations?

    <p>It typically homogenizes populations.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the significance of an FST value of zero?

    <p>Populations are genetically identical with respect to allele frequencies.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    In what way can genetic drift affect allele frequencies?

    <p>It causes unpredictable changes in allele frequencies.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What characterizes heterozygote inferiority in a two-allele system?

    <p>Heterozygotes have the lowest fitness.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is a result of selection within a population?

    <p>It can change allele and genotype frequencies.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the effect of migration on the Fixation Index (FST)?

    <p>Migration reduces FST by homogenizing populations.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    Study Notes

    BIOL 359 Final Notes - Evolution (University of Waterloo)

    • Fact: A repeatedly confirmed observation, accepted as true.
    • Hypothesis: A tentative statement about the natural world, leading to testable deductions/predictions.
    • Law: A descriptive generalization about how a natural phenomenon behaves under specific conditions.
    • Theory: A well-substantiated explanation of a natural phenomenon, incorporating facts, laws, and tested hypotheses.
    • Evolution: A scientific fact and theory, repeatedly confirmed; a well-substantiated explanation for the fact of evolution.
    • Catastrophism: The historical belief that Earth's features were formed by catastrophic events.
    • Uniformitarianism: The principle that geological processes occurring today are the same as those in the past.
    • Lamarckism: A flawed early theory of evolution based on inheriting acquired characteristics.

    Evolution History - Before Darwin

    • ~500 BC Anaximander: Believed species originated from water, with humans descending from fish.
    • ~400 BC Empedocles: Proposed that body parts randomly joined, and only successful combinations survived.
    • ~300 BC Plato: Developed the concept of idealism, arguing that observed phenomena are imperfect representations of ideal forms.
    • ~300 BC Aristotle: Visualized a static world with fixed species arranged on a Scala Naturae (scale of nature).
    • 1735 Carolus Linnaeus: Developed the binomial nomenclature system for classifying organisms.

    Evolution History - Before Darwin (continued)

    • 1809 Jean-Baptiste Lamarck: One of the first to propose that evolution occurs over time, though his mechanism (inheritance of acquired characteristics) was flawed.
    • 1794 Erasmus Darwin: Published Zoonomia, proposing species evolved and are descendants of earlier life forms; although he lacked evidence for natural selection.
    • 1801 Georges Cuvier: Father of comparative anatomy and paleontology; proposed catastrophism and was among the first to recognize extinction events.

    Evolution Before Darwin (continued)

    • 1785 James Hutton: Proposed uniformitarianism, arguing that geological forces operate today as they did in the past.
    • 1830 Charles Lyell: Published Principles of Geology, emphasizing uniformitarianism and contributing to the shift away from catastrophism.
    • 1859 Charles Darwin: Published On the Origin of Species, outlining his theory of evolution by natural selection.

    Modern Synthesis/Neo-Darwinian Synthesis

    • The modern synthesis integrated Darwin's natural selection with Mendelian genetics.
    • The synthesis established selection acting on genetic variation driving evolution across multiple levels (population to higher taxonomic).

    Evidence for Evolution

    • Descent with modification: The change in population allele frequencies over time.
    • Homology: Similar characteristics from shared ancestry, functionally different.
    • Analogy: Similar functions, but unrelated ancestry.

    Selective Breeding

    • Evidence for evolutionary change.
    • Demonstrates that biological change is possible and can occur rapidly.
    • Supports the idea that species evolve.

    Incipient Species

    • Populations that are nearly complete their separation into new species.

    Vestigial Structures

    • Body parts with reduced function compared to relatives, supporting evolutionary history.

    Fossil Records

    • Collection of fossils, providing evidence of evolution (change over time and relationship among species).
    • Used for hypothesis testing regarding evolution.
    • Demonstrates that organisms change over time and extinct species are similar to extant species.

    Genetic Variation

    • Classical Hypothesis: Little variation, selection for "best" alleles, rapid removal of deleterious mutations.
    • Balancing Hypothesis: Heterozygosity at many loci maintained by balancing selection.
    • Population Heterozygosity: Proportion of heterozygotes in a population.
    • Selectionist Hypothesis: Balancing selection maintaining vast genetic variability, heterozygotes have higher fitness.
    • Neutral Hypothesis: Most alleles are neutral (no effect on fitness).

    Hardy-Weinberg Principle

    • Shows how allele and genotype frequencies behave in natural populations if no external forces are acting, mating is random, and populations are large.
    • Provides expected genotype frequencies for hypothesis testing.
    • To determine whether a population is in Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium, use observed heterozygosity and expected heterozygosity to compare data.

    Units 3, 4, Mutations, Phylogenetics

    • Natural Selection: Difference in survival and reproduction of phenotypes leading to population changes.
    • Evolutionary Fitness (Darwinian Fitness): Individuals' contribution/impact to the next generation, number of offspring.
    • Adaptation: Traits increasing relative fitness.
    • Antagonistic Selection: Different selective pressures favoring different traits.
    • Adaptation: Trait increasing fitness compared to individuals without it
    • Genetic Variation: Differences in traits due to genetic differences within individuals (genotype).
    • Environmental Variation: Different traits arising from environmental conditions, despite identical genotypes.
    • Mutation: Changes in DNA sequences-Substitutions, insertions, deletions, and frameshifts (point, nonsense, transition, transversion).
    • Indels (Insertions and Deletions): Changes in DNA sequence involving one or more nucleotides, can lead to huge shifts.
    • Neutral, Deleterious, Beneficial, Lethal Mutations: Affect fitness in different ways.
    • Homologous Structures: Similar in structure but different function, due to shared ancestry.
    • Homoplasy: Analogous traits that arose independently.
    • Phylogenetics: Study of ancestor-descendant relationships.
    • Transitional Forms: Intermediate forms that blend features of ancestral and descendant forms.

    Units 7 - 11, 14

    • Adaptation: Trait increasing fitness.
    • Trade-off: Compromises in traits.
    • Constraint: Factors slowing adaptation.
    • Parthenogenesis: Asexual reproduction— Obligate (cloning) and cyclical (some sexual reproduction)
    • Hermaphrodites: Organisms with both sex organs; capable of self-fertilization.
    • Parental Investment: Effort for mating, gestation, and caring for offspring.
    • Sexual Selection: Differential reproductive success.
    • Sexual Dimorphism: Differences in appearance between sexes.
    • Intrasexual Selection: Within-sex competition.
    • Intersexual Selection: Between-sex choice.
    • Kin Selection: Altruism toward relatives, increasing inclusive fitness.
    • Coefficient of Relatedness: Degree of genetic similarity between individuals.
    • Hamilton's Rule: When rB >C (coefficient of relatedness * benefit > cost), altruism is favored.
    • Species Concepts: Morphological (physical similarities), Biological (interbreeding), and Phylogenetic (shared evolutionary history), Cryptic Species, Hybridization.
    • Biogeography: Geographic distribution of organisms.
    • Dispersal: Movement of organisms away from their origin.
    • Vicariance: Formation of a physical barrier separating populations.
    • Endemic: Species found only in a particular region.
    • Punctuated Equilibrium: Evolution characterized by rapid bursts of change followed by periods of stasis.
    • Phyletic Gradualism: Morphology changes slowly over time.
    • Human Evolution Timeline: Divergence from chimpanzee ancestors 5-7 million years ago.

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    Description

    Explore key concepts in evolution as covered in the BIOL 359 course at the University of Waterloo. This quiz encompasses fundamental terms such as fact, hypothesis, law, theory, and the historical context of evolutionary thought. Test your understanding of critical milestones before Darwin and cornerstone ideas like catastrophism and uniformitarianism.

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