ecol 335 general final exam qs

• Define the concept of Parsimony.

  The simplest explanation is most likely to be correct.
• What is the difference between host and within host selection?

  Between-host selection occurs between hosts and acts on traits such as transmission rate. Within-host selection occurs within a host and acts on traits such as replication rate.
• What are two ways multicellularity have originated? 

  Coming together multicellularity and staying together multicellularity.
• What are some types of conflict that can rise from multicellularity? 

  Prisoner’s dilemma, tragedy of the commons, cancer. 
• During the origin of cellular life, the evolutionary individual changed from template replicator to hypercycle in protocell. During the evolution of the eukaryotic cell, the evolutionary individual changed from prokaryotic cell to eukaryotic cell. During the evolution of multicellularity, the evolutionary individual changed from unicellular organism to multicellular organism.
• Transcription factor genes encode a type of proteins called a transcription factor. These proteins are a type of trans- regulatory element and function by binding to cis- regulatory elements, such as enhancers, of other genes.

  Terms: (gene, protein, trans-, cis-, enhancer, duplication, pleiotropic, epistatic) 
• In Muller's ratchet, the source of linkage disequilibrium is chance. In the Fisher-Muller theory, the source of linkage disequilibrium is chance In the Red-Queen theory, the source of linkage disequilibrium, is selection.

  Terms: (selection, chance)
• Recapitulation is a trait seen in late development of ancestral species, appears earlier in a descendant species

  Ex: tail appears early in human development (stage 2 of embryo development)
• Sexual selection is a form of natural selection which acts on heritable variation in traits that directly influence reproduction
• Bateman's principle asserts that sex which invests most in offspring tends to be a limiting resource over which the other sex competes
• Tragedy of the commons is a situation where organisms compete for a shared resource. Competition decreases resource, which leads to a reduction of fitness for the entire group.
• A unit of selection and adaptation (i.e., an evolutionary individual) must possess heritable variation in fitness. Additionally, mechanisms of conflict mediation help prevent cheating at the lower level.