Variation

• what is variation?

  differences in the characteristics of individuals in a population
• what are the causes of variation within a species?

  • genetics
  • environment
• What is genetic variation?

  • variations in the genotypes of organisms of the same species due to the presence of different alleles
  • creates differences in phenotypes
• what creates genetic variation in a species?

  • spontaneous mutations
  • sexual reproduction
• 3 types of gene mutation

  • insertion
  • deletion
  • Substitution
• how may a gene mutation affect an organisms phenotype?

  • neutral mutation doesn’t change the sequence of amino acids, protein structure and function same, no effect
  • mutation may cause minor change in phenotype
  • may completely change the sequence of amino acids, resulting in a non-functional protein, severe changes to phenotype
• consequence of a new phenotype caused by a mutation being suited to an environmental change

  rapid change in the species