Question

Disease biologist working near you in California have noticed that a large number of salamanders dying. The disease biologists discover that a virus that is causing "wasting' symptoms in some salamanders that leads to death, but some salamanders survive. The biologists realize that the salamanders that are surviving the disease have a mutation called IM2 which produced proteins that result in an immune system that is better than other salamanders at fighting viral infections. One of the biologists says, "Wow. It is a good thing that there are some individuals that adapted to this viral infection and developed the IM2 mutation so that the entire species of salamanders doesn't become extinct." Q6. How do you respond to the comment to educate your co-worker about evolution? A complete answer would include 2 misconceptions and an explanation of each misconception.

Answer 1

EVOLUTION- Evolution is the change in the heritable characteristics of biological population over several generation and relies on natural selection.

MUTATION- Mutation is the change that occurs in our genetic material(DNA sequence).

MISCONCEPTION - 1. Natural selection is about survival of the very fittest individuals in a population .

EXPLANATION- 'Survival of the fittest' is the most popular term of natural selection. In most populations , organism with many different genetic variations survive,reproduce and leave offspring carrying their genes in the next generation.It is not simply the one or two best individuals in the population that pass their genes to the next generation.

e.g. A plant may not have the genes to flourish in a drought or a predator may not be quite fast enough to catch her prey every time she is hungry . These individuals may not be the' fittest' in the population , but they are' fit enough 'to reproduce ans pass their genes on to the next generation.

2.Natural selection gives organisms what they need-

EXPLANATION- Natural selection has no senses , it cannot sense what an individual or a species needs . Natural selection acts on the genetic variation in a population and it is generated by random mutation.If a population happens to have genetic variation that allows some individuals to survive a challenge better than others or reproduce more than others then they have more offsprings than others in the next generation. If that genetic variation is not in that polulation , the population may survive or may die out.