BIOL 446 Exam 1 Practice Questions and Correct Answers
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Course
BIO 446
Institution
BIO 446
What is physiology? Study of how organisms, organs, cells, and biomolecules carry out the chemical or physical functions in an organism
What is ecology? A holistic way of viewing nature in order to comprehend how those tangled ecosystems work by following and studying connections between all livin...
BIOL 446 Exam 1 Practice Questions and
Correct Answers
What is physiology? ✅Study of how organisms, organs, cells, and biomolecules carry
out the chemical or physical functions in an organism
What is ecology? ✅A holistic way of viewing nature in order to comprehend how those
tangled ecosystems work by following and studying connections between all living and
non living things
Physiological ecology? ✅How organisms function in their environment
Dynamic process: evolution is ongoing
Natural selection (benefit)? ✅a process whereby an individual organism experiences
random mutations or other genetic changes in their genome
If these genetic changes are beneficial in a particular environment, the individual
organism will be more likely to survive and reproduce, creating more individuals with
that genotype.
Evolution? ✅the historical change in genetic allele frequency in a population of
organisms
the overall narrative of the natural selection process because it does not apply to one
specific individual organism
It involves a change in the genetic composition of a POPULATION of individual
organisms over a period of time that includes many generations of individuals
Allele? ✅one of two or more alternative forms of a gene that arise by mutation and are
found at the same place on a chromosome
Natural selection acts on ____________, but only_____________ evolve.
✅individuals; populations
Genotype? ✅constitution of parts or all of an organism's genetic material (usually DNA
but in the case of RNA viruses, RNA instead) passed down by its parents
Phenotype?
Example? ✅any morphological (how an organism looks), developmental, biochemical
or physiological (how it works) property all the way down to the subcellular level
,(including epigenetic marks), as well as any of the individual's behavior (how it acts) and
products of behavior
*** includes traits or characteristics that can be made visible by some technical
procedure
Bacteria change phenotype in real time
Phenome? ✅sum total of phenotypic traits
multiple ________ interact with multiple ________ to produce the phenotype.
✅Genes; environmental variables
(e.g., abiotic factors, culture, symbionts, other biotic factors)
Adaptation?
What does it infer? ✅process of temporary phenotypic adjustment within individuals
**Used to describe an evolutionary process
infers that evolutionary processes acting on HERITABLE genetic or epigenetic variation
bring about an increasingly good fit between organism and environment
Adaptation describes a ________________ change.
Examples? ✅non-heritable change
(although the ability to make such a change is usually heritable!!!)
i) Over the summer, trout become adapted to higher water temperatures
ii) Density-dependent phase polymorphism in the velvetbean caterpillar (Anticarsia
gemmatalis)
Adaptive trait? ✅Distinct variant of a phenotype that enhances fitness
Distinct variant that arose historically as a result of natural selection for its current
biological role
i) Historically: fitness effect that must have been working in the past
ii) Natural selection: the process that determines fitness; not a random process like
genetic drift
Acclimation?
An example of? ✅something that occurs only within the individual organism in
response to a current change in the environment (ability to acclimate is an adaptation)
Caterpillars
, Biological fitness? ✅Relative genetic contribution of an individual to the gene pool of
the next generation(s)
What is not a human phenotype that enhances fitness? ✅Wisdom teeth
Biological adaptation? ✅Distinct variant of a phenotype that arose historically via
natural selection to enhance fitness of an organism in its current environment
What did Gould and Lewontin argue?
Take home message? ✅that some traits do not appear to be adaptive, that is, they
appear to have a neutral or even deleterious effect on fitness in the current environment
not all organismal features are likely to be adaptations (e.g., not all traits may be
functional).
What is a biological spandrel? ✅a phenotypic characteristic that is a byproduct of the
evolution of some other characteristic, rather than a direct product of adaptive selection
Six approaches for studying adaptation: determining if a trait is a spandrel? ✅1. Clinal
variation
2. Reciprocal transplant experiments
3. Mapping traits onto a phylogeny
4. Determining the correlation between genetic
and environmental change
5. Transgene experiments
6. Functional effects of variants
Clinal Variation approach to studying adaptation?
Case studies? Explain. ✅Occurs when traits or allele frequencies are repeatedly
correlated with latitude or other spatial change in an environmental variable
Clinal Variation in Drosophila ADH: the electrophoretically Fast/Slow alcohol
dehydrogenase (ADH) allozyme polymorphism
- Hypothesis of molecular adaptation: changes in the amino acid sequence of the ADH
protein in D. melanogaster increased the catalytic activity of the enzyme and thereby
contributed to the adaptation of the species to its ethanol-rich ecological niche
- Different AA sequences
- fast allele faster in electrophoresis and faster metabolism (but no big variation in
ethanol resistance, doesn't contribute much to fitness → ** there must be other genes
involved rather than just one)
-as T inc, S allele is more stable/works better at higher T, AA content allows it to fold to
greater stability
- Ectotherms are more dependent on this concept
CONCLUSION on the role of positive molecular adaptation of ADH in ethanol tolerance
in D. melanogaster :
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