1/30 Biology update and homework due 2/6

Hi folks,

Today we took the time to dive a bit deeper into evolution and discuss genetic drift and the Hardy-Weinberg principle.

For homework, please write at least a paragraph essay on your thoughts as to whether or not humans are evolving.  Tell me your evidence for your argument.  Some thoughts on things to include in your essay: Darwin's postulates, Harvey-Weinburg, adaptations, survival of the fittest.  Something to keep in mind for this is that evolution is a change over time.  It is not necessarily a positive or negative change, just an overall change in the gene pool over time.

Also please do the following questions that relate to the lab we did this week.

1. What did the poker chips represent?  Why did we use two different colors of chips?

2. What was the original gene frequency of the F and the f alleles before selection occurred? 

3. How did the gene frequency of the F and f alleles change by the 10th generation (or at least as far as you got)? 

4. How do you explain that both alleles, F and f, changed in frequency over time in the lab? 

5. In a real rabbit habitat new animals often come into the habitat (immigrate), and others leave the area (emigrate). How might emigration and immigration affect the gene frequency of F and f in this population of rabbits? How might you simulate this effect if you were to repeat this activity? 

6. How do your results compare with the class data? If significantly different, why are they different? 

7. How is this simulation an example of evolution by natural selection? 

8. In nature, how is it that lethal alleles, like furlessness, are still passed along through the generations and not completely selected out of the population? 

9.  How did the bag of chips represent the gene pool?

10. If we wanted to represent artificial selection, what could we have done differently for this simulation?

11.  If we wanted to represent genetic drift, what could we have done differently in this simulation?

12.  If the temperature warmed so that the furless bunnies didn't die, what would that have done to the gene pool over time?

13.  Apply two aspects of the Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium idea to this simulation.   How could you alter the simulation to included those two aspects.  Remember, the goal would be to do something so that the gene frequency would not change much over each generation.