TOPIC 1: Theory

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of Evolution
1. Concepts of evolution
2. Factors contribute to evolution
3. Population genetics
4. Natural Selection
5. Speciation
6. Species concept
7. Evolutionary tree of life
1. Concepts of Evolution
● Theodosius Dobhansky wrote:
● “Nothing in Biology makes sense except in the light of evolution. “
● Evolution is the process by which each type of organism is descended from ancestors that were similar but not
identical to it. This process requires that all life share a common ancestry.
● According to Darwin, It’s all about mechanisms and it is related to natural selection
● Process by which living species change and new species come into being
● Charles Darwin and Alfred Wallace
○ English naturalists.
○ Came up with the idea that hereditary characteristics of species could change or evolve over many
generations.
○ Darwin’s ideas took shape during trips around the world.
- Stopping at the Galápagos Islands made the strongest impression.
- Examined finches on the island that differed in many ways from those he had seen in Ecuador.
- Darwin kept his thoughts to himself until he received a letter from Wallace stating the same
ideas.
- Published The Origin of Species.
Cont…
● Darwin’s mechanism of evolution is based on the following assertions:
○ Changes in heredity occur in the individuals of a population, leading to varied progeny.
○ Populations produce more progeny than the environment can support. This leads to competition among the
progeny.
○ The progeny best adapted to the *environment will reproduce most abundantly.
○ Repeated over many generations, the preceding three factors could lead to great changes in heredity and,
hence, significant changes in life forms.
○ * Natural selection – Darwin’s term for the effect of the environment
○ Darwin's theory of evolution, also called Darwinism, can be further divided into 5 parts:
- "evolution as such",
- common descent,
- gradualism,
- population speciation, and
- natural selection.
 2. Factors that Contribute to Evolution
● For changes to be passed from one generation to the next, changes must occur in DNA.
● Two primary sources of change in DNA:
○ Mutation
○ Recombination
● Mutations
○ Mutation produces new alleles.
○ Random changes in DNA.
○ Primary source of new hereditary information.
○ Base substitution.
- Type of mutation in which the wrong base is inserted in the DNA copying process
- Body heat keeps molecules in motion, causing collisions that sometimes cause this mutation.
○ Some mistakes are corrected, others are missed.
○ Errors occur at random locations.
- When an error occurs in the DNA of reproductive cells, the altered gene can produce new hereditary
characteristics in progeny
 Cont…
● Mutagens
○ Agents that cause mutations
-Body heat.
-High-energy radiations: dental X-rays, ultraviolet light from the sun, high-energy particles released
from radioactive decay.
-Chemicals
-Normal metabolism
● Most mutations have little or no effect on evolution.
○ Cause damage that leads to their elimination.
● Occasionally, a mutation helps an organism spread through the population and contributes to the evolution.
○ Example: the appearance of antibiotic resistance in bacteria that cause human disease.
● If a mutation occurs at a critical point in the gene for vital protein
○ Cell makes copies of protein
○ Leads to cell death
● If mutation damages proteins that control cell division
○ Cells multiply without limit
○ Produce tumors and cancers (in animals)
 Cont…
● Recombination
○ Process that creates new combinations of genes by joining parts of DNA molecules from separate organisms.
○ Ways recombination occurs
-Transduction
Viruses carry the DNA of one host organism to another
-Transformation
Bacteria take up segments of DNA that are released from decaying organisms
Enzymes insert compatible portions of foreign DNA into the cell’s own DNA
-Conjugation
Bacteria pass a copy of their own DNA into another bacterium of the same species
Enzymes exchange parts of the host’s own DNA for some of the transferred DNA
-Sexual reproduction
Occurs in cells of eukaryotes
The most common source of recombination: Meiosis@Crossing over
Happens at many random points along most chromosomes
No two gametes are likely to have same combination of parental chromosome segments
 Cont…
● Hybridization
○ Mating between two different species
○ Process called hybridization
○ Progeny are called hybrids
○ Characteristics of hybrid plants
- Often, they cannot reproduce sexually (Mis match between chromosomes disrupts meiosis)
- May be vigorous
- May multiply by asexual reproduction
○ Introgression
- A process by which hybrid plants can transfer genes between the two parent species
- Transfer requires back-crossing
○ Biologists are uncertain as to how often hybridization occurs among plants on the whole.
○ Some fear hybridization and introgression may allow genes from genetically engineered plants to escape into wild
populations.
 Cont…

● Endosymbiosis
○ Cells of one species reside inside cells of another species
○ If endosymbiosis lasts for many generations, DNA may pass from guest species to the host species
- Adds to the host’s nuclear DNA
- Leaves the guest as a dependent organelle
- Examples: mitochondria and chloroplasts
○ Primary endosymbiosis
- Example: the origin of mitochondria and chloroplasts from bacteria
○ Secondary endosymbiosis
- Example: eukaryotic predators gained chloroplasts through endosymbiotic partnership with eukaryotes
that already had chloroplasts
- Led to brown algae and certain other protists
 3. Population Genetics
• By the 20th century, genetics was advanced enough to show the molecular basis of evolution
• Question raised concerning heredity and evolution: Why do different versions of the same gene (called alleles) persist in a
population, even though one allele is more abundant or is expressed more strongly from the other?
• G.H. Hardy and G. Weinberg
• 1908: A simultaneously published model to answer questions about population evolution
• Conditions that should apply to an ideal population
-Mutations do not occur
-Organisms do not migrate between populations
-Reproduction is limited to random sexual mating
-There is no natural selection
-The population is very large
• Analysis by Hardy and Weinberg showed that under those ideal conditions
-Two alleles for the same gene remain indefinitely in the population at a fixed ratio, even if one
allele is dominant over the other
Called Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium
Became basis for a new discipline known as population genetics (Integrates
genetics and evolution).
 Cont…
• Population genetics: Tool to predict changes and explore causes of evolution
• Effects of chance on small populations
• Best-adapted individuals do not always leave the most offspring.
• Random accidents (fire, epidemic) in small populations may accidentally eliminate all individuals with the best allele.
• Genetic drift
• Random change in allele ratio
• Founder effect
• Occurs when a few individuals from a large population establish a small, isolated population
• Founders may have a combination of traits that are uncommon in old population
• May start new population on a new path of evolution
• Often seen in studies of oceanic islands
- Island plants are related to mainland species, but traits differ in many ways
 4. Natural Selection
• Guides evolution
• Natural selective agents can be abiotic or biotic
• Biotic factors. Examples: Competing organisms, predators, prey
• Abiotic factors. Examples: Climate, water supply, light
• How population evolve by natural selection?
• Directional selection
• Stabilizing selection
• Diversifying selection
 Cont…
• Directional selection
• Adaptations – favourable hereditary traits that enhance success in a particular environment
• Leads to new adaptations
• Example: spines of cacti. Spines: Help plant collect rainwater but dead at maturity
 Cont…
• Stabilizing selection
• Maintains existing adaptations
• Selective forces act equally against variations on both sides of the mean
• Example: Each generation of adult cacti has the same average spine diameter as the generation before
 Cont…
• Diversifying selection
• Natural selection that increases genetic variation
• Can be caused by
• Disease agents
• Factors that favour two or most distinct types in a population
• Example.
- Grass growing on mine tailings (rich in lead and
zinc).
- Same species of grass growing on surrounding
normal soil.
- Plants that grow on mine tailings fail to thrive on
normal soil
- Plants that grow on normal soil fail to grow when
transplanted to mine tailings
- Presence of mine tailings beside normal soil permits
lead and zinc-tolerant and intolerant plants to persist
simultaneously in the population.
5. Speciation
• Process which splits one species into two.
• Involves the following processes
- Geographic isolation (Geographical barriers prevent populations from meeting to exchange genes)
- Reproductive isolation and directional selection (Block to gene exchange)
 Cont…
• Polyploidy
• Possession of more than two chromosome
sets per cell
• Important source of new species in plants
• New polyploid plant is reproductively
isolated because it cannot exchange genes
with its diploid relatives
• Hybridization
• Another source of reproductive isolation
that can lead to speciation
• New hybrids often sterile
• Fertility can be restored if cell at tip of
hybrid plant becomes polyploid and initiates
polyploid shoot that forms gametes
 6. Species Concept
• What is a species?
• A group of organisms that are more closely related to one
another than to organisms of any other kind
• May look more like one another
• Interbreed more freely with one another than with
organisms outside the group
• Characters
• Traits of organisms ranging from shapes and colours
of body parts to DNA
• Used to define most currently known species
• Phenetic species
• Species that are defined by combinations of traits
• Example: citrus trees (Characterized partly on
distinctions between their fruits)
 Cont…
• Type specimen
• An organism placed in a museum or botanical garden when a
species is first named
• Used for comparison
• Does not always reflect all members of that species
• Mating test
• If organisms from two populations mate and produce fertile
offspring under natural conditions, then the two populations
belong to the same species
• Biological species
• Species defined by mating test
• Problems associated with the mating test
- Does not apply to organisms that lack sexual
reproduction
- Many plant species can interbreed with closely
related species and produce offspring that are weakly fertile
 7. Evolutionary Tree of Life
• Phylogenetic Systematics
• Recent developments making phylogenetic systematics
active field
• Cladistics
• Invention of fast, inexpensive computers to make it
practical to analyze large amounts of data
• Invention of quick ways to read information stored
in DNA
• Phylogenetic tree
• Diagram showing evolutionary relationships
• Tips of branches: Most recent products of evolution
along each branch
• Each branch point: Act of speciation (where one
species divides into two
 Cont…
• Some reasons for studying systematics
• Practical rewards for knowing how evolution led to
present-day species
• Search for new medicines
- Slow growing plant produces compound
that cures colon cancer
- Look for faster growing relatives of plant for
alternative sources of compound
• Ways to stop parasites that attack food plants
- Experiment with relatives of parasite that
can be grown without a host