7.

1: Adaptation and Variation

Organisms constantly face environmental challenges that limit their ability to survive. Organisms that
survive long enough to reproduce have the opportunity to pass along to their offspring the genetic
information that helped them survive. The diversity within species and the interactions of organisms
with their environment help explain how populations can change over time and why some species of
organisms survive while others become extinct (disappear completely from Earth).

Adaptations and Survival

An adaptation is a structure, behaviour, or physiological process that helps an organism survive and
reproduce in a particular environment.

Examples:

o Camouflage: helps to avoid predation

o Hibernation: survive harsh climates, reduces metabolic demand.
o Mimicry: disguise as a harmful species to avoid predation

Camouflage is an example of a physical adaptation. E.g. The colouring and structure of the stick
insect in help camouflage from the surrounding vegetation. As a result, more of the camouflaged
individuals survive and reproduce.

Hibernation is an example of a physiological adaptation. E.g. Hibernation allows the Richardson’s

ground squirrel to survive in climates with harsh winters. Hibernating species reduce their metabolism
to save energy.

The needle-sharp talons and excellent vision of an owl are structural adaptations that make owls,
such as that in excellent predators in their environment.

Mimicry: A Type of Structural Adaptation

 Many harmless species resemble a harmful species in coloration or structure. This

phenomenon is called mimicry. Predators that avoid the harmful species will also avoid the
mimic.
 For example, the viceroy butterfly is palatable to predators, but the monarch butterfly is not.
The viceroy is similar in structure and coloration to the monarch. By catching and eating a
monarch butterfly, predators learn to avoid both butterflies because the coloration and
structure warn them that this prey tastes bad.

Development of Adaptations

 Adaptations are the result of gradual, accumulative changes that help an organism survive
and reproduce. The changes in characteristics are the result of random, heritable mutations
in genetic material (DNA) that accumulate over generations.
 Variations are structural, functional, or physiological differences between individuals. Not all
variations become adaptations.
 Environmental conditions determine whether a variation in an individual has a positive or
negative effect, or no effect on the individual’s ability to survive and reproduce. Individuals
possessing a helpful variation are more likely to survive and have a higher chance of passing
this variation on to their offspring. As a result, the variation will become more frequent and will
be considered to be a characteristic, or trait, of the population.
  Interaction with environments is important to adaptation and variation because environments
change climates change over time, and droughts, floods, and famines may occur. Human
activities, such as deforestation and land cultivation for crops, also change environments.
Thus, a characteristic that may not give an individual organism a particular advantage now
may become critical for survival later in the environment in which that species lives.

The English Peppered Moth: Variation to Adaptation

The English peppered moth is an example of how the proportions of some inherited characteristics in
a population change in response to changes in the environment. The English peppered moth has
three colour variations: greyish-white flecked with black dots (resembling pepper), black, and an
intermediate colour. The colours of interest in this example are the greyish-white and black. In the
past, the black variety was extremely rare making up less than 2 percent of the peppered moth
population near Manchester, England. Yet 50 years later, in 1898, 95 percent of the moths in
Manchester were of the black variety. In rural areas, however, black moths were less frequent. The
increase is due to behaviour and genetic make-up of the moths and in the environment in which
they lived.

The Peppered Moth and Pollution

 Peppered moths are active at night. During the day, when they rest in the trees, they are
potential prey for birds. Until the mid-19th century, the flecked moths in Manchester were
camouflaged when they rested in the trees that were covered with light-coloured lichen. The
black moths, however, were easily seen and therefore easily preyed upon.
 The 50 years in which the black moths gradually became much more common in Manchester
coincided with the Industrial Revolution in England. The air pollution from all the new factories
killed the lichens, and soot began to cover Manchester’s trees. As a result, the flecked moths
were seen and eaten by birds, while more black moths survived long enough to reproduce
and pass on their genes to their offspring.
 The difference between the flecked and black forms of the peppered moth is genetic. Before
the Industrial Revolution, more flecked moths survived and therefore passed on the genes for
flecked colouring in the gene pool. However, when air pollution increased, more black moths
survived with each successive generation and the ratio of flecked to black moths in the
population essentially reversed.
 In the 1950s, England enacted clean-air legislation, and lichen began to grow on trees again.
The number of flecked moths increased in industrial areas such as Manchester. In these areas,
9 out of 10 peppered moths were black in 1959. By 1985, 5 out of 10 were black, and the
number dropped to 3 out of 10 by 1989.

Variation Within Species

 How does variation arise? The answer is in the genes. Offspring have a combination of
genetic material from both parents. Through sexual reproduction, parents pass on genes to
their offspring.
 The number of possible combinations of genes that offspring can inherit from their parents
results in greater genetic variation among individuals within a population. We look different
because, through sexual reproduction, everyone has inherited a different combination of
genetic information from its parents. In other words, have inherited different alleles. Some of
this genetic information is expressed in each of our phenotypes. Other genetic information
has no visible effect but remains part of everyone’s genetic make-up and can be passed on
to the next generations.
 Genetic variation in a population results from the variety of genetic information in all
individuals of the population. Another important source of genetic variation in a population is
gene flow.
Mutations Lead to Genetic Variation

 Mutations are changes in the genetic material—DNA—of an organism. They provide new
alleles in a species and are the only source of new genetic variation when inherited.
 Mutations happen continuously in the DNA of any living organism. They can occur
spontaneously when DNA is copied (S phase) before a cell divides.
 For example, your DNA has about 175 mutations compared with your parents’ DNA because
of mutations that occurred as your DNA was copied. Mutagens, such as ultraviolet radiation,
are environmental agents that can also cause mutations in DNA.
 When there is a mutation in the DNA, a cell may exhibit new characteristics: the cell could
die, malfunction, or multiply more than it should, resulting in a cluster of cells that form a
tumour.
 Mutations that significantly alter the shape or structure of DNA often adversely affect the well-
being of an organism and can be harmful. However, some may not be harmful, they can
even be beneficial.

Mutations in Gamete Cells

 Some mutations do not appear to have any effect on a cell. Whatever the result, if the
mutation occurs in a somatic cell, the mutation disappears from the population when the
organism dies. If the mutation alters the DNA in a gamete, however, the mutation may be
passed on to succeeding generations as a new allele. For example, if we have mutations in
our egg or sperm cells, these mutations could be passed on to our offspring. These mutations
were not present in parents’ DNA. Thus, mutations are the starting point of genetic variation in
populations.

Mutations Can Provide a Selective Advantage

 A selective advantage is a genetic advantage of one organism over its competitors. Over
time, a selective advantage causes the organism to be favoured in terms of survival and
reproduction. In other words, a selective advantage helps an organism survive the changing
environmental conditions and reproduce.
 For example, the water flea Daphnia, normally lives in water that is around 20°C, and it
cannot survive in water 27°C or warmer. However, a mutation enables some populations of
Daphnia to survive in temperatures between 25°C and 30°C. Daphnia without this mutation
may not survive and reproduce when temperatures are high.

Rapid Reproduction and Selective Advantage

 Some organisms reproduce very quickly, such as bacteria, viruses, and many insects. The
reproduction times of these organisms are very short compared with the reproduction times
of most plants and animals. For example, some populations of bacteria can double in under
10 min.
 In populations that reproduce this quickly, a new allele that resulted from a random mutation
that was previously insignificant in the population may provide a selective advantage to
some individuals when the environment changes. As a result, the organisms that have the
new allele may survive long enough to reproduce and pass the genetic information on to the
next generation. In time, the gene that provided the selective advantage becomes more
prevalent in the population. One mutation can, in some cases, mean the survival of the
whole population.
Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria

 An example of rapid reproduction and selective advantage can be seen with the
Staphylococcus aureus bacterium. Staphylococcus aureus, is a relatively common bacterium
that can have minor or major effects on human health, such as minor skin infections and
more serious blood infections. Individual bacteria reproduce asexually very rapidly. Under
optimal conditions, the bacteria can reproduce every 30 min. Such rapid reproduction helps
adaptation to occur very quickly: the bacteria with an advantageous mutation may survive a
changing environment and reproduce, whereas the bacteria without an advantageous
mutation may not. The surviving bacteria reproduce rapidly. This rapid adaptation often leads
to problems when doctors treat patients with a Staphylococcus aureus infection (or other
bacterial infection) with an antibiotic.
 An antibiotic is a drug used to treat infections caused by bacteria and other micro-organisms.
Some examples of antibiotics are penicillin and tetracycline. The problem is that some
individual members of the species may have a new allele, from a random genetic mutation,
that makes them resistant to the antibiotic. Only the individual bacteria with the new allele
are able to survive and reproduce. They can then pass on the genetic information that
resulted in resistance to that particular antibiotic to their daughter cells. Individual members of
the population do not change during their lifetime. Rather, over time, the population
changes in its ability to resist certain antibiotics. It is important to emphasize that the
populations change, not individuals.
 7.2 Natural and Artificial Selection

Natural selection is the process that results when the characteristics of a population of organisms
change over many generations. This change happens because individuals with certain inherited traits
survive specific local environmental conditions and, through reproduction, pass on their alleles to their
offspring. For natural selection to occur, there must be diversity within a species.

Selective Pressure

 In those populations of Staphylococcus aureus, the individual members of the bacteria

population were selected for by their environment. They survived the change in the
environment around them, which was the application of an antibiotic. Thus, they could
reproduce and pass on the genetic information that coded for resistance to that particular
antibiotic.
 An abiotic (non-living) environmental condition can be said to select for certain
characteristics in some individuals and select against different characteristics in other
individuals.
 In this way, the environment exerts selective pressure on a population. Selective pressure may
result from biotic factors as well, such as predators, parasites, and competition for resources.

Natural Selection Is Situational

 Natural selection does not anticipate change in the environment. Natural selection has
no will, purpose, or direction. Instead, natural selection is situational. A trait that at one time in
one situation seems to have no apparent relevance to survival may be the trait that, at a
different time in a different situation, helps certain individuals in a population survive and
reproduce. The alleles for this trait will then be inherited by the offspring of the survivors. As a
result, over many generations, there will be more and more individuals that inherit the allele
for the trait that helps them survive the change in environment. Those individuals form a
population that is better adapted to their environment.
 When discussing natural selection, the word fit or fitness is often used. Fitness in this sense
describes the contribution an individual makes to the gene pool of the next generation by
producing offspring that survive long enough to reproduce. A high degree of fitness means
that an organism will survive and reproduce, thereby passing on its advantageous genes to its
offspring, and those offspring will survive long enough to reproduce. Fitness is often described
as the number of reproductively viable offspring that an organism produces in the next
generation. An organism with many viable offspring has high fitness, whereas an organism
that has few or no viable offspring has low fitness. High and low reproductive rates are relative
to the typical number of offspring for the species.

Artificial Selection

 People have been artificially selecting organisms for particular traits for thousands of years.
Selective breeding is a form of artificial selection (selective pressure exerted by humans on
populations in order to improve or modify particular desirable traits)
 Selective breeding and artificial selection are a type of biotechnology. Biotechnology is the
use of technology and organisms to produce useful products.
 Artificial selection has had a large impact on human survival. Most of the food we eat—
grains, fruits, vegetables, meat, and milk—comes from species that have been selectively
bred. For instance, artificial selection has resulted in cows that produce more milk. Some
varieties of chicken are bred to grow rapidly and have large muscles for increased amounts
of meat. Other varieties of chicken have been bred to produce large numbers of eggs. Some
animals, such as domestic cats, are bred for their appearance.
  The key difference between natural selection and artificial selection is that in natural
selection, the environment plays the role that humans play in artificial selection. In natural
selection, the environmental conditions determine which individuals in a population will
survive and reproduce in the current conditions. This, in turn, affects the gene pools of
individuals of future populations because the genes from the surviving individuals are passed
on to their offspring.

Artificial Selection and Food Crops

 The food crops that we depend on for most of our diet—rice, corn, wheat, and vegetables—
are the result of selective breeding.
 E.g. the wild mustard plant has been modified by selective breeding to create many
common food crops, including broccoli, Brussels sprouts, and cauliflower. The traits of the
artificially selected varieties all differ from the wild plant, but they are members of the same
species and can interbreed and produce viable offspring.
 We breed food crops to increase their nutritional value and harvest yield. We also breed them
to be drought-resistant or pest-resistant. Artificial selection has its limits, though: if plants are
bred to grow quickly, they may not tolerate poor soil conditions. Crop breeders now
understand that selective breeding must be balanced to maintain genetic variation within
the crops and the ability of the plants to respond to conditions of environmental change.

Consequences of Artificial Selection

 Artificial selection, like all technologies, has negative as well as positive consequences.
 For example, English bulldogs are selectively bred for different traits, such as their flat faces.
This trait results in severe respiratory problems. Hip dysplasia, a type of arthritis common in
German shepherds and other large dog breeds, is also an unfortunate consequence of
artificial selection for one trait.
 Some artificial selection techniques, such as genetic engineering, have been used to
introduce new genetic information into domesticated organisms. However, one of the main
goals of domestication is to produce organisms that are all similar. To make plants similar, it is
necessary to reduce genetic diversity. Plants are specialized through selective breeding to
produce the qualities that growers want, so plants that have been selectively bred lack
genetic diversity.
 For example, most agriculture in the world is based on extensive plantings of the same
varieties of a species over large expanses of land. This agricultural practice is called
monoculture. It is certainly easier to manage fields in which there is only one kind of plant
growing. This is particularly true today when herbicides, insecticides, and fertilizers are
manufactured specifically to meet the needs of specific crop species. However, with
monoculture comes a significant risk. Because these organisms are so similar, if a new disease
infests the crop population, most of the individual plants will be affected in the same way and
the whole population could be killed or severely damaged.

Gene Banks

 In order to protect against such risks, gene banks have been established. Gene banks
contain populations of early ancestors of modern plants—our most important food plants
came from wild ancestors with genetic combinations that allowed them to survive and
reproduce in their environment. These specimens have been collected in the wild and from
prehistoric archaeological sites. Seeds can survive for long periods of time, so they can be
recovered from early settlements. By preserving these organisms, their genetic diversity is
available for introduction into modern plants if need arises.