Genotype - Phenotype link

• DNA …. Nucleotides …. Amino acids …. Proteins

• Changes in DNA ….changes in Proteins, Phenotype

• Genotype - Phenotype link

• Phenotype = Genotype + Environment + 2(covariance

between Genotype & environment)

• P = G + E +2covar(G*E)

1
 Evolution
▪ Any change in the frequency of alleles within a gene pool from
one generation to the next

▪ Results in
▪ heritable changes in a population over many generations
▪ change in the properties of populations of organisms
transcending the lifetime of a single individual

▪ Microevolution (slight) Vs Macroevolution ( substantial)

▪ Central idea:
▪ Common ancestry, Descent with modification, Origin &
dispersal
2
 The Evidence

• Palaeontology & geology

• Biogeography

• Comparative anatomy
a. Vestigial organs
b. Embryology

• Comparative biochemistry

• Plant & animal Breeding

3
 Palaeontology
 Discovery, study & interpretation of
fossils

 Fossil: any form of preserved remains

thought to have been derived from a
living organism
◦ e.g. Entire organism, hard skeletal
parts, Coprolites

 Fossils: progressive increase in

complexity & changes in
diversity
4
 Fossils & Evolution
a. Older fossil-bearing rocks have
simple-structured fossilized
organisms, younger rocks have
increasingly complex fossil
structures

b. Greater variety of fossils in

younger fossil-bearing rocks
than older rocks

5
 Fossils & Evolution
c. Many species which appear at an
early stratigraphic level disappear at
a later level in the rock deposits
Implication:... Species originated &
became extinct at these times

d. Fossils of recent organisms blend

into present living flora & fauna with
often same genera and species
being represented

6
 Note
Fossils were well-known before evolution became
accepted

...considered remains of former creations or artefacts

inserted into the rocks by God

7
Fossils…animals
Animal fossils
plant fossils
 Fossil formation
▪ Petrification, Imprints, Casts & moulds, freezing, Tar pits, Amber

▪ Petrification
- Minerals dissolved in groundwater seep into tissues of a dead
organism and replace its organic material
- Dead plant/ animal is turned into stone
E.g.: Petrifed bones of dinosaurus
Petrified wood of trees

11
Imprints/Impressions
- Depressions formed in soft mud or sand subsequently dry and
change into sedimentary rock and thus get preserved
E.g. Foot prints, leaf prints

12
▪ Freezing
- Entire organism is trapped in freezing soil, snow or ice that does
not thaw over time,
- Bacterial decay prevented .... much of the organism is preserved
E.g. Woolly mammoth in Siberia
(intact for over 25000 years)

13
Casts & moulds
- Dead organism is trapped in sedimentary sand and/or clay.
- Sediments harden to rock
- Skeleton dissolves and leaves its impression
- This is then filled with fine materials/minerals which
harden to form a cast
E.g. Casts of giant horsetails (Calamites) of
Carboniferous forests

14
Tar Pits
- Depressions with sticky material
which traps organisms. There’s
minimal bacterial decay and
skeletons of many prehistoric
times are preserved
E. g. Bones of animals in asphalt
lakes of California

15
Amber

- Sticky hardened resin of evergreen

trees
- Many prehistoric insects got trapped
in the resin
- Very little bacterial decay occurred,
the insects got preserved

16
 WEAKNESSES OF FOSSIL RECORD

▪ Record is not continuous and therefore incomplete.

▪ Gaps in record: evidence against descent with modification?

▪ Dating of fossils may be inaccurate, sometimes because of

geologic disturbances

19
 WHY FOSSIL RECORD HAS GAPS

▪ Only a fraction of the fossils have been found

▪ Dead organisms may decompose rapidly

▪ Dead organisms are eaten by scavengers

▪ Soft-bodied organisms do not fossilize easily

20
 WHY FOSSIL RECORD HAS GAPS

▪ Fossils can be destroyed by erosion of the sedimentary rock

▪ Only a small proportion of organisms will have died in

conditions favourable for fossilization

▪ Some fossils have been found that show a nearly complete

step-by-step progression from simpler to more morden forms
e.g. Horse Equus spp.

21
 WHY FOSSIL RECORD HAS GAPS

▪ Some missing links in fossil record

have been discovered
E.g. link btn reptiles and birds =
Archaeopteryx

▪ Possibility: Sudden & important

environmental changes led to
appearance of new species
...intermediate forms in lineage do
not exist?

▪ Fossils are only a part of the total evidence and so there is a limit
to what they can tell
22
 BIOGEOGRAPHY

▪ geographical distribution of organisms over the face of the

earth

▪ Species are not distributed every place they can potentially

survive
▪ e.g. Elephants, lions, antelopes in Central Africa but not in Brazil but
with similar climate & environment

▪ Areas that have been separated from the rest of the world
for a long time have organisms specific to those areas

▪ Each species originated only once, in a particular area, its

centre of origin, from where it spread out until halted by a
barrier of some kind

23
 COMPARATIVE ANATOMY

Structural & developmental homology

▪ Organisms have anatomical similarities due to common
ancestry or descent

▪ Anatomical similarities indicate evolutionary ties between

organisms possessing them

▪ Example… Pentadactyl limb

vertebrate forelimbs with same sets of bones organized in
similar ways, despite their dissimilar functions.
….case of human arm, bat wing, bird wing, dolphin’s front
flipper

24
Pentadactyl limb
 Homologous & analogous structures
• Homology: similarity of the structure, physiology, or
development of different species of organisms based upon their
descent from a common evolutionary ancestor
• existence of shared similar structures or genes in different
species
• Have different purposes but share the same basic design …
Divergent evolution
• E.g. Pentadactyl limb

26
 Analogous structures

- Analogous traits: Structures/organs which function similarly

without a past shared common ancestry…. Convergent evolution
E.g. streamlined shape of shark (fish) and whale (mammal)

Whale Shark

27
 Analogous structures

wings of birds and of insects; structures are used for

flight in both types of organisms, but they have no
common ancestral origin …. Convergent evolution

28
 COMPARATIVE ANATOMY

Structural & developmental homology

▪ Embryological development reveals a unity of plan: related
species have similar patterns of development.

▪ During development, all vertebrates have a notochord and

paired pharyngeal pouches.

▪ pharyngeal pouches :
▪ fishes and amphibian larvae, they become gills.
▪ In humans, they become cavity of middle ear and auditory
tube; tonsils, thymus and parathyroid glands.

29
30
 COMPARATIVE ANATOMY

Vestigial structures
▪ functionless or rudimentary versions of a body part that has
an important function in other closely allied species
▪ remains of a structure that was functional in some ancestor
but is no longer functional in the organism in question.
E.g.
▪ most birds have well-developed wings, yet some birds have
reduced wings and do not fly

▪ Humans have a tail bone (the coccyx) but no tail

▪ Also muscles attached to hair follicle

31
Cave-dwelling fish populations of the Mexican tetra,
Astyanax mexicanus have eye sockets but no eyes

Open-dwelling

Cave-dwelling

32
 COMPARATIVE BIOCHEMISTRY

Molecular homology
▪ The universality of the genetic code…all life is related

▪ With few exceptions, all organisms use the same nucleotide

triplets to specify the same amino acids to be incorporated into
proteins

▪ A greater proportion of the sequence of nucleotides in DNA is

identical in closely related organisms

▪ Sequence of amino acids in common proteins such as cytochrome

c or haemoglobin reveals greater similarities in closely related
species

▪ Blood sera of closely related vertebrates are more similar than

sera of distantly related vertebrates
33
GENETIC CODE

34
35
 PLANT & ANIMAL BREEDING

▪ Human civilization has modified domestic animal and plant

stocks based on selection of desired traits

▪ Could nature not do the same?

▪ Individuals with favourable traits preserved over generations,

those lacking them perish along the way
▪ Basic tenets of Natural selection:
- Overproduction
- Heritable variation
- Differential survival & reproduction
- Population modification??

36
Gallus domesticus

37
Could nature not do the same???

39