How meiosis contributes to heritable variation

During fertilization, one gamete from each parent combines to form a

zygote. Because of recombination and independent assortment in meiosis,
each gamete contains a different set of DNA. This produces a unique
combination of genes in the resulting zygote.
 Independent assortment
It mixes up alleles that originally came from an organism’s father
and its mother, so that the gametes it produces contain a mixture of
alleles from both of the organisms parents. Each sperm or egg that
you produce contains a mixture of alleles from your mother or father
 Variation and natural selection
Although all the individuals in a species have similar characteristics,
they are not identical with each other. They show intraspecific
variation. This variation has two basic causes: the organisms'’ genes,
and their environment.
 Genetic variation
Meiosis causes variation through independent assortment and
crossing over. Random fertilization introduces variation
between offspring. Genetic variation can also be brought about
by changes in the DNA in a cell. This is called mutation hence
genetic variation is inherited.
 Environmental variation
Environmental variation is the ability of an organism to alter
greatly its PHENOTYPE depending upon environmental conditions

Example: Two plants with identical genes may have very different
sizes and colour of leaves because one is growing in the shade or
has poor soil while the other is growing in the sun with rich soil.
 Mutations
A random, unpredictable change in DNA is called a mutation.

Mutations can be categorized into two main groups.

Gene mutations are changes in the sequence of nucleotides in the

DNA that makes up a gene.

Chromosome mutations are changes in the structure or number of

chromosomes in a cell.
 Mutation continue
A substitution is a mutation that exchanges one base for
another
A deletion is a mutation in which a part of a chromosome or
a sequence of DNA is lost during DNA replication
 An Insertion is the addition of a new pair of bases
into the DNA
 Sickle cell anemia
‘
Sickle cell anemia is an inherited disease caused by a
single substitution in the gene that codes for one of the
polypeptide chains in haemoglobin.

A mutation in the gene coding for a beta chains causes

sickle cell anemia.

When someone inherits two mutant copies of the

hemoglobin gene, the abnormal form of the hemoglobin
protein causes the red blood cells to lose oxygen and
warp into a sickle shape during periods of high activity
 Down syndrome
People who inherit an unbalanced translocation involving
chromosome 21 may have extra genetic material from chromosome
21, which causes Down syndrome

When this occurs both chromosomes 21s go into one daughter cell
and neither in the other. If this happens in an ovary, it results in a
female gamete with either no chromosome 21 or with two copies
instead of one. Oocytes with no chromosomes die, but the two
copies survive and may be fertilized. The resulting zygote has three
21s chromosomes.
 Why heritable variation is important to
selection
Genetic variation is essential for natural selection because
natural selection can only increase or decrease frequency of
alleles that already exist in the population.