NATURAL SELECTION

Tuesday, 5 March 2024 3:17 pm

Objectives
Explain how environmental factors act as forces of natural selection.
Explain how natural selection may be an agent of change.
Discuss natural selection as the mechanism of evolution.
Discuss the biological species concept.
Explain the process of speciation.

Examples of natural selection

• Resentence to antibiotics
• Resistance to pesticides
• Peppered moth.
• Trinidadian guppies
• Dominican anole
•

Theory of natural selection

Developed by Charles Darwin based on the following
• Presence of environmental pressures e.g. competition for food, territory, mates.
• All species produce more offspring if they can survive in an environment with limited resources
• Individuals with variation best adapted to their environments are more likely to survive and reproduce than the less well-adapted organisms
• Offspring of survivors will inherit advantages traits and characteristics, and selected v rarity with remain well adapted to environment

Natural selection is the process which results in the best-adapted organisms in a population surviving to reproduce and pass on more of their genes to
the next generation.

DARWINN'S Observed
1. All organisms over-reproduce - far more organisms are produced than are required to keep the population at a steady size.
2. Population numbers tend to remain fairly constant over long periods.
3. Organisms within a species vary.
4. Some of the variations within a population are inherited.

Darwin deduced
1. There is competition for survival - the ‘struggle for existence.’
2. Organisms with characteristics that best adapt them for their environment are most likely to survive and reproduce.
3. Characteristics that can be inherited will be passed on from parent to offspring.

Selection Pressure
● Resource availability – Presence of sufficient food, habitat (shelter/territory) and mates. ● Environmental conditions – Temperature, weather
conditions or geographical access.
● Biological factors – Predators and pathogens (diseases

Types of selection
1. Stabilising selection
2. Directional selection
3. Disruptive selection

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3. Disruptive selection

1. Stabilising selection
Occurs when the environment remains stable over time
The same alleles will be selected over many generations
No extreme phenotype
No significant change over time

The extreme phenotypes in this case are dark green beetles and light green beetles. Any of these would be more easily seen by predators against the
background of medium green leaves and eaten. The medium green beetles would easily camouflage against the medium green leaves and survive to
reproduce and pass on this advantageous trait.

Disruptive selection
The extreme phenotypes in this case are dark green beetles and light green beetles. Any of these would be more easily seen by predators against the
background of medium green leaves and eaten. The medium green beetles would easily camouflage against the medium green leaves and survive to
reproduce and pass on this advantageous trait.

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Disruptive Selection
● If there is a selective disadvantage against the intermediate phenotypes then disruptive selection occurs. ● In this case, the result of natural
selection may be a population that contains two different forms, at either end of a spectrum for a particular characteristic.

● If selection pressures change, for example due to a change in the environment, a variation that previously was not advantageous may begin to confer
better survival value than another, resulting in directional selection.
● This type of selection is also referred to as evolutionary selection.
● In some cases a completely new, advantageous variation arises by mutation.
● Future generations of this species will carry the new trait, thus leading to evolution.

Speciation

This is an evolutionary process that occurs when a species is created out of a pre-existing species .
It occurs when reproductive isolating mechanisms prevent two breeding organisms from producing fertile, viable offspring

Two types of speciation

Allopatric and Sympatric

Allopatric speciation (Geographic isolation)

Allopatric speciation occurs when a geographical barrier physically isolates populations of an ancestral species
■ The two populations begin to evolve separately as a result of cumulative mutation, genetic drift and natural selection
■ Eventually the two populations reach a degree of genetic divergence whereby they can no longer interbreed (speciation

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Sympatric Speciation (genetic isolation)
Sympatric speciation is divergence of species within the same geographical location (i.e. without a physical barrier)
■ Sympatric speciation may result from the reproductive isolation of two populations as a result of genetic abnormalities
■ Typically, a chromosomal error may arise which prevents successful reproduction with any organism lacking the same error

Reproductive isolation
Pre-zygotic isolating mechanisms

• Temporal - Occurs when two spaces mate at different times of the year (frogs that live in the same pond but breed in different seasons)

• Ecological - Occurs when two species occupied different habitats (lions and tigers can potently interbreed but the live in different habitats )

• Behavioural- Occurs when two species have different courtship behaviours ( certain groups will only respond to specific mating calls )

• Mechanical- occurs when physical differences prevent copulation/ pollination ( certain breeds of dogs are morphically incapable of matingdue to
size.

Post-zygotic isolating mechanisms

Hybrid inviability - certain types of frogs for hybrid tadpoles that die before reaching maturity

Sympatric speciation is most commonly caused as a result of a meiotic failure during gamete formation
If meiotic cells fail to undergo cytokinesis, chromosomal number will double in the gamete(e.g diploid instead of haploid )
This will result in offspring that have additional sets of chromosomes (polyploidy)
Speciation will result if the polyploid offspring are viable and fertile but cannon interbreed with the original parent

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