BIOL 161 Exam 1 Study Guide F24

Exam 1 Review BIOL161 Exam 1 Evolution Material Introduction and Why Science? BIOL 161 is part of the Biology major’s three course introductory series. BIOL 162 covers cell and molecular biology, BIOL 163 covers physiology and development. What are the core concepts covered in this course,...

Exam 1 Review BIOL161 Exam 1 Evolution Material Introduction and Why Science? BIOL 161 is part of the Biology major’s three course introductory series. BIOL 162 covers cell and molecular biology, BIOL 163 covers physiology and development. What are the core concepts covered in this course, BIOL 161? During the first week of class I made the case that misuse and misunderstanding of science can lead to inaccurate perceptions of the world and each other and that this can lead to misinformed individual actions and public policy. Describe the examples of Why Science Matters that we discussed in class. We discussed several diseases, which have switched hosts to infect humans. Name 3 of these diseases. Which emergent viral disease is the most important right now. Why are diseases that switch hosts typically more virulent (nasty and harmful) than diseases that have an extended evolutionary history with a particular host? If a disease is easy to transmit would you expect the disease to evolve to become more virulent or less virulent? If a disease is difficult to transmit would you expect it to evolve to become more virulent or less virulent? Describe 3 public health policies that make diseases more difficult to transmit. The philosophical concepts of Essentialism and the Great Chain of Being were part of Eutopesn church doctrine and intellectual tradition of Darwin’s time. Briefly describe the Key elements of these concepts. Are these concepts consistent with modern views of biology including evolution? Have these concepts of essentialism and the great chain of being influenced concepts of the relationships of among humans? In what way? From the phylogeny of modern humans and other living primates which is the closest living relative of modern humans. Are modern humans from any one particular geographic area more closely related to this primate than modern humans from other regions? Where do bananas originally come from? Would the ancestors of humans ever have encountered a banana in the wild? Does throwing a banana at another human as an insult make any sense? Given these examples of the origins of COVID and the interrelationships of humans Does Science Matter? Can a hypothesis ever be proven to be correct by the scientific method? Can a hypothesis ever be proven to be incorrect by the scientific method? What is Evolution? History of the idea The study of biological evolution deals with some topics and not others. Which of these are the subjects of the study of Biological evolution? The origin of the universe, The origin of life, Humankind’s purpose on earth, changes in gene frequencies over time, morphological modification through time, morality, immorality, values, fitness. Throughout this course we will see that Science is not a static body of knowledge but a method of testing and either rejecting or re-enforcing hypotheses. We have tried to play a role in this process in this class Page 1  Exam 1 Review BIOL161 Provide a brief summary of this scientific process from Observations to experimentation. Describe 1 example of how we have tried to enact this process in the lecture and or lab. Many biologists have proposed that “nothing in biology makes sense except in light of evolution? Who is credited with this quote originally? In the early lectures of the class I outlined my own reasons for being interested in Evolution Ecology and Organismal Biology. What were the top 3 of those reasons? What are your top 3 reasons. Evolution is sometimes criticized as being “just a theory”. In scientific terms what is the difference between a Theory, a Hypothesis and a guess? Which is the most strongly supported by evidence? Name 3 other things that are strongly supported by overwhelming evidence but are “just theories”. Charles Darwin’s Hypothesis regarding evolution consists of two main components: 1) Descent with Modification 2) by Means of Natural Selection. Describe what is meant by each of these terms. Was Charles Darwin the only scientist to propose a hypothesis for the process of evolution? If no… who else proposed ideas. Who Is Alfred Russel Wallace? Why do you think that he is not as famous as Charles Darwin? Darwin’s personal history was influential in giving him the opportunity to develop his ideas. In particular he went on a sea voyage where he made observations and developed his ideas about evolution. What is the name of the ship he travelled on? Where did they go? How long was he gone? When did they leave and come back? In what year did Darwin finally publish his book On the Origin of Species by means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of the Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life”? Why did it take so long for him to do this? In order for evolution by natural selection to occur there are three things that must be true regarding variation, heritability and relative fitness of phenotypes. What is a phenotype? and what are these three things that must be true? Describe 5 things Darwin and Wallace knew little or nothing about but are crucial to a full understanding of the hypothesis of evolution by means of natural selection that they proposed. How is “fitness” defined in evolutionary terms? How is this different from the common use of “fitness” such as physical fitness? Page 2  Exam 1 Review BIOL161 Which of the following graphs shows an example of directional selection? Stabilizing selection? Disruptive selection? In class we discussed several different examples of directional stabilizing and disruptive selection. Briefly describe an example of each. Briefly describe 3 examples of plants or animals that demonstrate the power of Artificial Selection to change phenotypes over time. Why is Artificial selection critical in modern society? Which group of organisms did Darwin and other gentlemen hobbyists do extensive artificial selection experiments with to test his ideas about natural selection? Name 4 staple food crops that are the result of domestication and artificial selection on wild plants. Where were these plants originally domesticated? Describe what you would predict to result from the following case of natural selection involving peccaries (a type of small pigs) feeding on cactuses. Is this directional, stabilizing or disruptive selection? Be able to do the same for the other cases given as examples in lecture. In what ways is Artificial Selection different from Natural Selection? In what ways is Artificial Selection similar to Natural Selection? Your book outlines 7 common objections/misunderstandings regarding Evolution, list these objections and briefly explain how a modern evolutionary biologist would respond to each? Page 3  Exam 1 Review BIOL161 History of life on earth Roughly how long ago was the earth formed? Roughly how long ago did the first life appear in the fossil record?? Roughly how long ago did Animals first diversify? Roughly how long ago did humans first appear in the fossil record? Roughly how long ago did multicellular eukaryotes first appear in the fossil record? Roughly how long ago did Animals first diversify? Roughly how long ago did humans first appear in the fossil record? Describe the process by which a fossil is formed. Radiometric Dating is one technique used to date fossils. Briefly describe how radiometric dating works The position of the continents has changed dramatically over the Earth’s. Name and describe the process responsible for the movement of continents. In addition to changes in the position of the continents, the earth’s environment has undergone many major changes over its history: global temperature, levels of oxygen global, sea level etc describe how each of these has affected the types of organisms and diversity of organisms that live on earth.. Place the following events on the wheel of time. Origin of the earth, Origin of Prokaryotes, Oxygen generating photosynthesis, origin of multicellular eukaryotes, Diversification of animals, first humans. Describe the global conditions that made it possible for 2 foot wide dragonflies and 9 meter long amphibians to live during the Carboniferous. Why can they probably not survive now? Basics of Genetics What is the full name of the molecule that carries genetic information in all plants, animals, and most microbes (all life on earth except for some types of viruses)? What is the abbreviation of this name? What are the 4 nucleotides (aka bases) that make up the genetic “alphabet” of this molecule? How many nucleotide letters make up each genetic “word” called a codon? How many different words can be formed from these combinations of the 4 nucleotides? Describe the process of transcription of genetic information and translation of genetic information into a protein. Where does each step take place, which molecules are involved? What is the end product… What 4 levels of organization determine the structure of a protein? Which of these can affect the function of a protein? Page 4  Exam 1 Review BIOL161 Species and Speciation How does the Biological Species Concept define species? Is this the only way that biologists have tried to define what a species is? What is a pre-zygotic isolation mechanism? What is a Post-Zygotic isolation mechanism In class we discussed 6 pre-zygotic isolation mechanisms that can contribute to speciation. Describe each of the 6 pre-zygotic isolation mechanisms discussed in class. Give an example of each In class we discussed several examples of Post-zygotic isolation mechanisms. Describe 2 of these mechanisms All known organisms, both living and extinct are given a 2 part name or Latin Binomial which consists of 2 Latinized words: Genus species or Genus species. You should know how to properly write a Genus species when and where to capitalize/italicize or underline … Which of these is the proper scientific species name of Humans? Homo sapiens, Homo Sapiens homo sapiens, Homo sapiens Ditto recognize the proper way to write other species names. I won’t ask you to memorize the names just recognize which is written correctly For example What is the proper scientific species name of African Savana Elephants? What is the proper scientific species name of the western fence lizard? Why is just the species part of this combination never used as the species name? Describe the difference between sympatric speciation and allopatric speciation. Does hybridization between individuals of 2 different species always lead to the fusing of both species into 1 species Adaptations are the following statements True or False… for each you should be able to explain Why? All adaptations are unconstrained perfections of design and purpose All adaptations are compromises of evolutionary history developmental biology and available variation Adaptations usually involve emergence of completely novel structures to serve a new function. Adaptations usually involve recycling and repurposing an existing structure. In class we discussed three constraints that often limit the ability of natural or artificial selection to produce adaptations. Name and describe these constraints. In class we talked about a model about the evolution of snake venoms in which it is hypothesized that snake venom genes evolved from genes used for other purposes in other organs in the snake. Describe the hypothesized steps in this process from a gene expressed in another organ for another purpose to a gene expressed in venom glands and used for venom? Page 5  Exam 1 Review BIOL161 In class we looked at a set of genes called Beta Defensins in detail but there are many other genes which seem to show this same pattern. In the diagram to the left match venom genes and their original functions and locations. Phylogenetics give the categories of the Hierarchical system used in classifying the organisms. Domain, Kingdom, Phylum etc… How does the modern philosophy of biological nomenclature differ from the original goal of naming of organisms by early biologists such as Carl Linnaeus. On a phylogenetic tree label the following components Node, branch, tip, sister taxa, be able to identify the most recent common ancestor of any two taxa, draw a circle around a monophyletic group, a paraphyletic group … a polyphyletic group Draw a circle a group of 3 taxa that is Monophyletic. Draw a circle a group of 3 taxa that is Paraphyletic Draw a circle a group of 3 taxa that is Polyphyletic Which of these _____phyletic groups do modern biologists prefer to name? Which of the two family trees on the left better represents your family ancestry, the Top or the Bottom? Which of the two phylogenetic trees on the right in this diagram better represents your evolutionary ancestry, the Top or the Bottom? Page 6  Exam 1 Review BIOL161 What types of data can be used to test hypotheses regarding the relationships of taxa? Morphological, DNA sequence, Protein sequence, Behavioral? All of the above? Others? What else? Which tree below shows a more parsimonious hypothesis regarding the relationships among these vertebrates. Interpret the following trees. Which of the following is true Hippos are the ancestor of whales, whales the ancestor of hippos, is the ancestor of hippos the ancestor of whales. What is the sister taxon of toothed whales (dolphins)? Approximately how long ago did hippo’s share an ancestor with whales? Biologists use names which reflect evolutionary hypotheses to explain the relatedness of species. Which type of phylogenetic groups do evolutionary biologists prefer to name, paraphyletic, Monophyletic or Polyphyletic… why? Page 7  Exam 1 Review BIOL161 Given a phylogenetic tree such as this… identify if a group is monophyletic, paraphyletic, polyphyletic. Be able to find the Most Recent common ancestor of two critters… From this gene tree of HIV strains: is there one type of human HIV? Which host was the human HIV virus probably evolved? How many different times did this probably happen. Is the same medical treatment likely to work on all types of HIV? There are similarities shared by all HIV strains that are not found in other strains of the virus. Why does that give us clues about important regions of the virus genome to focus on for treatments? Won't be on the exam because We didn’t get to this because of the black out but… I wanted to tell you about Conservation and Phylogentics of Turtles In the last lecture of the Evolution section I described a couple of cases in which knowing the phylogenetic relationships of turtles and getting the right names on them can be essential for conservation. Why is it essential to know the species names of the turtles in this example? What is the difference between phylogenetic diversity and species diversity? What is the name of the international organization that maintains lists of endangered species? What is super special about the fauna such as the honeycreeper birds and flora (such as the silverswords) Hawaii? Is the freshwater fauna of Hawaii super diverse like the birds and plants? Why or why not? What is so special about the Gobies that live in Hawaiian Streams? Why is conservation of the turtle in the hawaii example complicated? Page 8