Mechanisms

of Evolution
Mechanisms of Evolution
There are several:
1. Natural Selection
2. Gene Flow
3. Genetic drift
4. Mutations
5. Non-random mating
 Genetic Variation
 individuals in a species carry different alleles
(An allele is an alternative form of a gene (one
member of a pair) that is located at a specific
position on a specific chromosome.
 Any change in gene (and allele) frequencies
within a population or species is Evolution

 Allele Frequency – proportion of gene copies in

a population of a given allele
1. Natural Selection:
 Affects variation in a population as the
better adapted (more fit) individuals to
their environment survive and
reproduce
 Nature “selects” which organisms will
be successful
 Imagine that green beetles are
easier for birds to spot (and hence,
eat). Brown beetles are a little
more likely to survive to produce
offspring. They pass their genes for
brown coloration on to their
offspring. So in the next
generation, brown beetles are
more common than in the previous
generation.
Natural Selection
 4 Steps of Natural
Selection:
 1. In nature , more offspring are produced
than can survive.
 2. In any population, individuals have
variation.
 3. Individuals with advantageous variations
survive and pass on their variations to the
next generation.
 4. Overtime, offspring with certain
advantageous variations make up most of
the population
2. Gene Flow:
 Is the movement of alleles into or out of a
population (immigration or emigration).
 Gene flow can introduce new alleles into a
gene pool
 Example:
 Plant pollen being blown into a new area
 Gene flow is what happens when two or
more populations interbreed. This
generally increases genetic diversity
 Imagine two populations of squirrels on
opposite sides of a river. The squirrels on the
west side have bushier tails than those on the
east side as a result of three different genes
that code for tail bushiness. If a tree falls over
the river and the squirrels are able to scamper
across it to mate with the other population,
gene flow occurs. The next generation of
squirrels on the east side may have more
bushy tails than those in the previous
generation, and west side squirrels might have
fewer bushy tails.
3. Genetic Drift
 The change in allele frequencies as a result of
chance processes.
 These changes are much more pronounced in
small populations.
 Smaller population sizes are more susceptible
to genetic drift than larger populations
because there is a greater chance that a rare
allele will be lost.
 Imagine that in one generation, two brown
beetles happened to have four offspring
survive to reproduce. Several green beetles
were killed when someone stepped on them
and had no offspring. The next generation
would have a few more brown beetles than the
previous generation—but just by chance.
These chance changes from generation to
generation are known as genetic drift.
Examples of Genetic Drift
 A) The Founder Effect:
A founder effect occurs when a new colony is
started by a few members of original population.
 Small population that branches off from a
larger one may or may not be genetically
representative of the larger population
from which it was derived.
 Only a fraction of the total genetic diversity
of the original gene pool is represented in
these few individuals.
 For example, the Afrikaner population of
Dutch settlers in South Africa is
descended mainly from a few colonists.
Today, the Afrikaner population has an
unusually high frequency of the gene
that causes Huntington’s disease,
because those original Dutch colonists
just happened to carry that gene with
unusually high frequency. This effect is
easy to recognize in genetic diseases,
but of course, the frequencies of all
sorts of genes are affected by founder
events.
 Examples of Genetic Drift
 B) Population Bottleneck:
 Occurs when a population
undergoes an event in which a
significant percentage of a
population or species is killed
or otherwise prevented from
reproducing.

•The event may eliminate alleles

entirely or also cause other
alleles to be over-represented in
a gene pool.
Bottleneck = any kind of event that reduces the population
significantly..... earthquake....flood.....disease.....etc.…
 An example of a bottleneck:Northern elephant seals
have reduced genetic variation probably because of a
population bottleneck humans inflicted on them in the
1890s. Hunting reduced their population size to as few
as 20 individuals at the end of the 19th century. Their
population has since rebounded to over 30,000 but their
genes still carry the marks of this bottleneck. They have
much less genetic variation than a population of
southern elephant seals that was not so intensely
hunted.
4. Mutations
 Are inheritable changes in DNA
 Mutations provide the raw material on which
natural selection can act.
 Only source of additional genetic material and
new alleles.
 Can be neutral, harmful or beneficial( give an
individual a better chance for survival).
 Antibiotic resistance in bacteria is one form.
 Mutation is a change in DNA the hereditary
material of life. An organism’s DNA affects how
it looks, how it behaves, and its physiology—all
aspects of its life. So a change in an
organism’s DNA can cause changes in all
aspects of its life.
 Somatic mutations occur in non-reproductive
cells and won’t be passed onto offspring.
 The only mutations that matter to
large-scale evolution are those
that can be passed on to offspring.
These occur in reproductive cells
like eggs and sperm and are called
germ line mutations.
 A single germ line mutation can
have a range of effects:
1.No change occurs in
phenotype.
2. Small change occurs in phenotype.

3. Big change occurs in phenotype.

. A single mutation can
also have strong negative effects for the organism.
Mutations that cause the death
of an organism are called lethals
—and it doesn't get more negative than that.
5. Non-Random Mating
 In animals, non-random mating can
change allele frequencies as the choice
of mates is often an important part of
behavior.
 Many plants self-pollinate, which is also
a form of non-random mating
(inbreeding).
Sexual selection occurs when certain
traits increase mating success.
 There are two types of
sexual selection.
– intrasexual selection: competition among
males
– intersexual selection: males display certain
traits to females