My Evolution Blog- Kaelyn Page

Something that makes me feel good are my babies. I have 2 dogs and a cat. Shasta (black and white), Mr. Pibb (tan), and Naughty (cat). These three make my whole life. They are the reason I want to be a vet. Animals are the best things to happen to humans.  They are what I miss most when I am away at school.  Sorry not sorry I bombarded you with photos of them. They are too cute to not brag on. I hope you all find them just as adorable.  (btw: sorry for the weird photo spacing. Blogger does not upload photos well and let us move them around)

 

   Phenotypic Plasticity is the ability of an organism to change their phenotype when  moved to a different environment to better suit itself. This does not change its genome.   "The Genetic Basis of Adaptation following Plastic Changes in Coloration in a Novel Environment", is about a species of lizard that a group studies. Some of the lizards they study live in lava rock with darker color , and others live in sand with lighter color . This is what they found due to phenotypic plasticity. These changes allowed for better camouflage depending on their environment.  This is connected to melanin production regulators, and the  process happens really quickly and it is really spectacular.  For more explanation, the researchers took a few lizards from the lava rock environment and then put them into the sand environment. They found that after only 4 months, the lizard's color had changed. It became lighter to match the sand. This  change of pigme...

1.  Positive Frequency Dependent Selection- The higher the frequency of the allele the higher the fitness. The g enetic variation is advantageous and takes over a population. 2. Negative Frequency Dependent Selection- The lower the frequency of the allele the lower the fitness. This is also known as a form of balancing selection. So, this  selection depends on the fitness of the genotype or phenotype.  3. Directional Selection- Favors one extreme or another. Most times, individuals with a more extreme version of a trait are favored.  4. Stabilizing Selection- Individuals that have the intermediate ( average ) version of the trait will have the highest fitness. 5. Disruptive Selection- Individuals with either extreme of the trait have the highest fitness. Individuals with the average trait will have the lowest fitness.  For my project, I plan on doing paintings with canvases. But for the blog posts, I will probably just do sketches on paper because the supplies a...

     1 a. Under what circumstances do we expect to see an increase in allelic frequency? In short, when there is an increase in allelic frequency we can expect an increase in relative fitness. When there is a decrease in the frequency there is a decrease in relative fitness. Together, the relative fitness of other alleles within the population can in fact, influence the speed and how quickly the allelic frequencies change.          b. What influences how quickly allelic frequency changes? In relative fitness of other alleles, when there is an increase, there is a quick change in the allelic frequency. And during a decrease, there is a slow change of allelic frequency.  The initial allele frequency and the relative fitness of each genotype influence how quickly allelic frequency changes.      2. Population size influences the change in allelic frequency over generations. In some of the simulations the red lines went to zero....