Chapter 23.

Evolution of Populations

AP Biology 2004-2005
 Populations evolve
 Natural selection acts on individuals
 differential survival
 “survival of the fittest”
 differential reproductive success
 who bears more offspring
 Populations evolve
 genetic makeup of
population changes
over time
 favorable traits

(greater fitness)
become more common Bent Grass on
AP Biology toxic mine site
2004-2005
 Individuals DON’T evolve!!!

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 Mutation & Variation
 Mutation creates variation
 new mutations are constantly appearing
 Mutation changes DNA sequence
 changes amino acid sequence?
 changes protein?

 change structure?
 change function?
 changes in protein may
change phenotype &
therefore change fitness
AP Biology 2004-2005
 Sex & Variation
 Sex spreads variation
 one ancestor can have many
descendants
 sex causes recombination

 offspring have new combinations

of traits = new phenotypes

 Sexual reproduction recombines alleles
into new arrangements in every
offspring

AP Biology 2004-2005
 Variation impacts natural selection
 Natural selection requires a source of
variation within the population
 there have to be differences
 some individuals must be more fit than
others

AP Biology 2004-2005
 Changes in populations
 Evolution of populations is really
measuring changes in allele frequency
 all the genes & alleles in a population =
gene pool
 Factors that alter allele frequencies
in a population
 natural selection
 genetic drift

 founder effect
 bottleneck effect
 gene flow
AP Biology 2004-2005
 Natural selection
 Natural selection adapts a population to
its environment
 a changing environment
 climate change
 food source availability
 new predators or diseases
 combinations of alleles
that provide “fitness”
increase in the population

AP Biology 2004-2005
 Genetic drift
 Effect of chance events
 founder effect
 small group splinters off & starts a new colony
 bottleneck
 some factor (disaster) reduces population to
small number & then
population recovers
& expands again

AP Biology 2004-2005
 Founder effect
 When a new population is started by
only a few individuals
 some rare alleles may be at high
frequency; others may be missing
 skew the gene pool of

new population
 human populations that
started from small group
of colonists
 example: white people
colonizing New World
AP Biology 2004-2005
 Distribution of blood types
 Distribution of the O type blood allele in native
populations of the world reflects original settlement

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 Distribution of blood types
 Distribution of the B type blood allele in native
populations of the world reflects original migration

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 Out of Africa
Likely migration paths of humans out of Africa

Many patterns of human traits reflect this migration

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 Bottleneck effect
 When large population is drastically
reduced by a disaster
 famine, natural disaster, loss of habitat…
 loss of variation by chance

 alleles lost from gene pool

 narrows the gene pool

AP Biology 2004-2005
 Cheetahs
 All cheetahs share a small number of
alleles
 less than 1% diversity
 as if all cheetahs are

identical twins
 2 bottlenecks
 10,000 years ago
 Ice Age
 last 100 years
 poaching & loss of habitat
AP Biology 2004-2005
 Conservation issues
 Bottlenecking is an
important concept in
conservation biology of
endangered species
 loss of alleles from gene
pool
 reduces variation

 reduces ability to

adapt
 at risk populations

AP Biology 2004-2005
 Gene flow
 Population spread over large area
 migrations = individuals move from one
area to another
 sub-populations may have different

allele frequencies
 Migrations cause genetic mixing across
regions = gene flow
 new alleles are moving
into gene pool
 reduce differences

AP Biology between populations 2004-2005

 Human evolution today
 Gene flow in human
populations is
increasing today
 transferring alleles
between populations

Are we moving towards a blended world?

AP Biology 2004-2005
 Any Questions??

AP Biology 2005-2006
 Chapter 23.

Measuring
Evolution of Populations

AP Biology 2004-2005
 Populations & gene pools
 Concepts
 a population is a localized group of
interbreeding individuals
 gene pool is collection of alleles in the

population
 remember difference between alleles & genes!
 allele frequency is how common is that
allele in the population
 how many A vs. a in whole population

AP Biology 2004-2005
 Evolution of populations
 Evolution = change in allele frequencies
in a population
 hypothetical: what would it be like if
allele frequencies didn’t change?
 non-evolving population
1. very large population size (no genetic drift)
2. no migration (movement in or out)
3. no mutation (no genetic change)
4. random mating (no sexual selection)
5. no natural selection (no selection)

AP Biology 2004-2005
 Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium
 Hypothetical, non-evolving population
 preserves allele frequencies
 Serves as a model
 natural populations rarely in H-W equilibrium
 useful model to measure if forces are acting on
a population
 measuring evolutionary change

G.H. Hardy W. Weinberg

APmathematician
Biology physician
2004-2005
 Hardy-Weinberg theorem
 Alleles
 assume 2 alleles = B, b
 frequency of dominant allele (B) = p

 frequency of recessive allele (b) = q

 frequencies must add to 100%, so:

p+q=1
BB Bb bb

AP Biology 2004-2005
 Hardy-Weinberg theorem
 Individuals
 frequency of homozygous dominant: p x p = p2
 frequency of homozygous recessive: q x q = q2
 frequency of heterozygotes: (p x q) + (q x p) = 2pq
 frequencies of all individuals must add to 100%, so:
p2 + 2pq + q2 = 1

BB Bb bb

AP Biology 2004-2005
 Using Hardy-Weinberg equation
population:
100 cats q2 (rr): 16/100 = .16
84 black, 16 white q (r): √.16 = 0.4
How many of each p (R): 1 - 0.4 = 0.6
genotype?

p2=.36 2pq=.48 q2=.48

BB Bb bb

AP Biology Must assume in H-W equilibrium! 2004-2005

 Using Hardy-Weinberg equation
p2=.36 2pq=.48 q2=.48
Assuming BB Bb bb
H-W equilibrium
Null hypothesis

p2=.10
=.45 2pq=.80
2pq=.10 q2=.10
=.45
BB Bb bb
Sampled data
How do you
explain
AP Biology the data? 2004-2005
 How do allele frequencies change?

AP Biology 2004-2005
 Real world application of H-W
 Frequency of allele in human population
 Example:
What % of human population carries allele
for PKU (phenylketonuria )
 ~ 1 in 10,000 babies born in the US is born

with PKU, which results in mental

retardation & other problems if untreated
 disease is caused by a recessive allele

 PKU = homozygous recessive (aa)

AP Biology 2004-2005
 H-W & PKU disease
 frequency of homozygous recessive individuals
q2 (aa) = 1 in 10,000 = 0.0001
 frequency of recessive allele (q):
q = √0.0001 = 0.01
 frequency of dominant allele (p):
p (A) = 1 – 0.01 = 0.99
 frequency of carriers, heterozygotes:
2pq = 2 x (0.99 x 0.01) = 0.0198 = ~2%
 ~2% of the US population carries the PKU allele
300,000,000 x .02 = 6,000,000

AP Biology 2004-2005
 Any Questions??

AP Biology 2005-2006