Selfish Genes
“outlaw genes”
meiotic drive (segregation distortion)
“packaging problem”
Parliament of genes
Viruses
Frequencies (percentages) of ABO blood types among various human populations_______________________________________________________________________________
Location O A B AB Sample Size (N)_______________________________________________________________________________
France 41.5 50.4 6.0 2.1 752
Germany 38.1 41.6 14.1 6.2 6341
Hungary 31.1 38.0 18.7 12.2 1500
Iran 37.9 33.3 22.2 6.6 1000
India (Hindus) 30.2 24.5 37.2 8.1 2357________________________________________________________________________________
Gypsies (France) 22.1 25.7 38.1 14.1 113
Gypsies (Hungary) 28.5 26.6 35.3 10.0 975________________________________________________________________________________
Levels of Approach in Biology
• How? versus Why? Questions and Explanations
• Proximate and Ultimate Factors
• Mechanistic versus Strategic Perspectives
• Short-term versus long-term considerations
• Why do birds fly south in the autumn?
• Shorter day length triggers pituitary secretions that enhance Wanderlust.
• Winter is predictable and reduces survival. Birds that tended to move south escaped its icy clutches and survived to reproduce and left more genes in the population gene pool.
Debates and Progress in Ecology
Density Dependence versus Density Independence
Competition and Resource Partitioning
Group Selection
Niche Concept
Predation School
“Logical Primacy” of Null Models
Rabid Experimentalists
Statisticians
Equilibrium versus non-equilibrium
Theoreticians versus empiricists
Organisms are classified hierarchically5 Kingdoms: plants, animals, fungi, protists, bacteria
• Phylum Arthropoda
• Class Insecta
• Order Diptera
• FamilyDrosophilidae
• Genus Drosophila
• Species melanogaster
• Latin binomials
• Chordata
• Mammalia
• Primates
• “Hominidae” (Pongidae)
• Homo
• sapiens (the “sap”)
Prokaryotes
Eukaryotes
Reticulate Evolution
Endosymbiosis
Phylogenetics Phylogenetic Systematics = cladistics
Importance of shared derived characteristics
Monophyletic groups (Polyphyletic, Paraphyletic)
Sister groups, outgroups
Rooting phylogenetic trees
Identify ancestral states — polarize character state changes
Synapomorphy = shared, derived characteristic
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