Movies/Podcast

• The field of evolutionary genetics focuses on the genetic basis of evolutionary change.
• Evolutionary genetics addresses longstanding questions about the genetics of adaptation.
• Biology is an exciting time where we can use approaches like Darwin first did, that is studies of natural history, observation and experiment in the wild, but combine that with studies of modern day molecular genetics to understand the genetic basis of what Darwin referred to as that perfection of structure and coadaptation which most justly excites our admiration.
• Evolutionary genetics involves tracking down the genes and developmental mechanisms involved in camouflaging and color differences between two species of wild mice.
• Evolutionary genetics also involves tracking down genes involved in burrowing behavior differences in these same mice.
• Darwin knew a lot about evolutionary change, but he didn't know the mechanism of evolutionary change, or the genetic nuts and bolts about how organisms adapt to their environment.
• Darwin knew that traits were inherited and that offspring resembled their parents, but he didn't know how.
• During Darwin's time, we didn't know about DNA or genes, much less the whole genome.
• The discovery of DNA by Watson and Crick provided evidence for Darwin's theory of evolution.
• The 3-dimensional structure of DNA, as described in the DNA text, provides further evidence for Darwin's theory of evolution.
• DNA text also provides evidence for Darwin's 3 billion year existence, the shared evolutionary history of all living organisms.
• Adaptive mutations tend to be dominant according to J.B.S. Haldane, as they are visible to selection and can quickly spread through the population.
• Multiple mutations can interact in a complex way, either additively or synergistically, to change the phenotype.
• Mutations can come from environmental changes, or they may be pre-existing at a low frequency in the population.
• More often beneficial mutations occur in regulatory regions than in structural regions.
• Variation in fitness-related traits can be due to genetic changes or DNA changes.
• Beneficial mutations can occur in the protein itself, affecting the structure and function of that protein, or in non-coding DNA, affecting the regulation, timing or place of expression of that protein.
• Convergent traits can be explained by the same mutations and same genes in different populations.
• Understanding the genetic changes or DNA changes that contribute to variation between populations or between species is a fun endeavor.
• Understanding why certain changes occur in regulatory regions and certain changes occur in structural regions is important for understanding the evolutionary process.
• Fitness-related traits are traits that improve the probability of survival or reproduction of organisms in natural populations.
• Darwin's question in evolutionary biology today is what gives rise to the diversity we see in natural populations.
• Watson and Crick's discovery of the genetic code allows us to look for answers in the genetic code.
• Finding genes can help answer longstanding questions about how evolution works.
• Changes in genes can produce changes in phenotype, and understanding how these changes occur can provide insights into the mechanistic aspects of evolutionary change.
• Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium is a concept developed by Hardy and Weinberg that is used by geneticists and evolutionary biologists.
• Hardy-Weinberg problems can plague biology students as they try to solve these problems.
• A gene pool is a collection of genes in a population that are not associated with one individual anymore.
• p is the allele frequency of the dominant trait in a gene pool.
• q is the allele frequency of the recessive trait in a gene pool.
• In a gene pool, 30% of the individuals are of the genes are going to be on the dominant and 70% are going to be of the recessive.
• If you randomly grab one gene out of a gene pool, the odds that it's going to be recessive are 7 out of 10.
• If you randomly grab two genes out of a gene pool, the odds that they're going to be recessive are 7 out of 10 times 7 out of 10, which is 0.49.
• The probability of pulling out a red on the first time and a then a blue on the second is 21 out of 100.
• The probability of a person being a non-taster, a taster, a non-taster, a taster, and a non-taster is 0.
• The heterozygous individuals are 2 times p times q, which in this case is 0.49.
• 16% of a population is unable to taste a chemical, and these non-tasters are recessive for the tasting gene.
• The probability of a person being a non-taster and a taster is 0.04.
• The probability of a person being a non-taster, a taster, a non-taster, a taster, and a non-taster, and a taster is 0.
• The probability of a person being a non-taster, a taster, and a non-taster is 0.01.