Are Humans Evolving How would you know

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Are Humans Evolving? How would you know?

• Lisa Torres, Joan Miyazaki, Jeff Leips, Bill
  Collins, Phil Sokolove,
• (The Changlings)

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Learning Objectives

• Be able to define evolution
• Understand factors that cause or lead to changes
  in allele frequency
• Understand how changes in allele frequency are
  related to adaptation
• Calculate phenotypic, genotypic, allele
  frequencies from real population data

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Module Outline

• Three day module consisting of the following
  components.
• Preclass assignment and readiness assessment
  test.
• Class 1 Class Phenotype activity (phenotype,
  genotype and allele frequencies, H-W formula)
• Class 2 Define evolution, Students work with
  real data
• Class 3 Human evolution are humans evolving?
• Summative Assessment

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Misconception Assessment Survey Instrument Give a
number for each of the following from 1 to 5 1
agree 5 disagree A. When one trait is
dominant to another trait, it is generally also
the most frequent trait in a population. B.
Traits evolve in response to environmental
change. C. Allele frequencies change in all of
the individuals in a population in response to
changes in the environment. D. Evolution is
change in allele frequencies in a population over
time. E. Evolution is change in heritable traits
in a population over many generations. F.
Evolution takes millions and millions of years.
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Earlobe Attachment
Free
Attached
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Earlobe Attachment
Free (Dominant)
Attached (Recessive)
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Earlobe Phenotype
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Earlobe Genotype
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Hardy-Weinberg Equation
p2 2pq q2 1 p q 1
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Q1 Can an individual cuttlefish change its color
to match its environmental background?
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Insert video clip of cuttlefish changing
Q2 Do you think that the cuttlefish changed its
genotype in order to accomplish camouflage?
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Q2 Can an individual rock pocket mouse change
its color to match its environmental background?
Photo Hopi Hoekstra
Nachman, Hoekstra, DAgostino 2003 PNAS
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Photo Hopi Hoekstra
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Genotype Frequencies in Six Locations
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Xmas Hills Tule Mountains ONeil Hills
Pinacate East Pinacate Middle Pinacate West
Photo Hopi Hoekstra
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Hoekstra and Nachman, Mol. Ecol. 2003
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Selection against mismatching
Photos by Hopi Hoekstra
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Human Evolution?

• What effect would the following mutations have on
  human evolution
• a deleterious gene whose effect appears after 40
  years of age?
• a gene that shortens reproductive age from 13 to
  5?
• a gene that makes people more cold tolerant?
• a gene that causes age-related death by 12 yrs?

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Human Evolution?
How might a gene lethal to children persist in a
population? If a small group of humans scatters
and disperses widely on an uninhabited land
mass-would you expect their diversity to
increase, decrease, or remain the same? What
effects do antibiotics and pesticides have on the
evolution of their target organisms? What trends
have already occurred in human evolution?
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Assessment
Preclass Readiness assessment test,
misconception survey Formative Student
response to directed questions e.g., clickers,
one minute paper, student reporting during
class Summative Student assessment survey
(SALG) Repeat misconception
survey Exam questions