FAHAHEEL AL-WATANIEH INDIAN PRIVATE SCHOOL

AHMADI-KUWAIT
BIOLOGY -- CLASS X

Chapter 9: Heredity and Evolution

I Gregor Mendel (1822-1884)

 He is known as the father of genetics. He was the first to explain the mechanism of
transmission of characteristics from parent to offspring, generation after generation. He
conducted experiments on garden pea plant (Pisum sativum)
 All the selected varieties were pure breeds.
 The pea plant shows 7 contrasting visible characters. E.g. Tall/dwarf, violet/ white
flowers, round /wrinkled seed.
 He allowed successive generations to self-pollinate and eliminated any offspring that
wasn’t a pure breed.
 He studied the inheritance of each of the 7 characters individually by conducting
monohybrid crosses, and then in combination by conducting dihybrid crosses.
II Garden pea plant and its contrasting traits.

Question and answer

How does the mechanism of heredity works? Explain with example.
 Each cell contains DNA which is the information source for making proteins.
 A section of DNA that provides information for one protein is called the gene for that
protein.
 For example, tallness in plants. Plants have hormones that help in growth.
 Plant height is dependent on the amount of the particular plant hormone.
 The amount of the plant hormone made will depend on the efficiency of the enzyme
that is important for this process.
 If this enzyme works efficiently, a lot of hormone will be made, and the plant will be
tall.
 If the gene for that enzyme has an alteration that makes the enzyme less efficient, the
amount of hormone will be less, and the plant will be short. Thus, genes control
characteristics or traits.
 Evolution
It is defined as a naturally occurring, slow, continuous and irreversible process of change in
living organisms. (Organic evolution)

Micro – Evolution:
Small changes occurring –
a) because of errors in DNA copying,
b) as a result of sexual reproduction and
c) due to environmental factors.
These change some common characteristics of a particular species. Small evolutionary changes
such as adaptation within a species or population.

Macro – Evolution:
It is the outcome of long periods of micro-evolution. The distinction between micro and macro
evolution is simply the time involved. In macro-evolution, the traits of the entire species are
important. For instance, a large amount of variation between individuals allows a species to
rapidly adapt to new habitat, lessening the chance of it going extinct. A wide geographic range
increases the chance of speciation, but it is likely that part of the population will become
isolated.

* List 5 factors on which the Origin of species is based upon/ Explain 5 factors which give rise
to new species.
There are five basic mechanisms of evolutionary changes:

1. Natural Selection:
It is a process that causes inheritance of traits that are helpful for survival and reproduction to
become more common and harmful traits to become rarer. This occurs because organisms with
advantageous traits pass on more copies of the traits to the next generation. Natural selection
favours genes that improve the capacity for survival and reproduction.

Origin of species by natural selection (Charles Darwin):

a) Every species is fertile enough that if all offspring survived to reproduce, the
population would grow.
b) Resources such as food are limited.
c) There is a struggle for survival.
d) Individuals in a population vary from one another.
e) Much of this variation is inherited.
f) Natural selection and survival of the fittest.
g) Ultimately, these variations accumulate over time to form new species.

2. Genetic Drift:
The change in the frequency of some genes in a population which provides diversity without
any survival advantage is called genetic drift. It is a change in the gene pool as a result of
chance and not as a result of natural selection, mutation nor migration. It is an evolutionary
process producing random changes in the frequency of traits in a population. Genetic drift
arises from the element of chance involved in which individuals succeed in reproducing.
3. Gene Flow:
It is the movement of genes from one part of the population to another part of the population
through gametes. It is the exchange of genes between populations which are usually of the
same species. An example of gene flow within a species includes the migration and the
breeding of organisms or the exchange of pollen grains. Gene transfer between species includes
the formation of hybrids.

4. Geographic/Reproductive Isolation:
If two populations are separated from one another by geographical entities, eg. A river, the
level of gene flow between them will decrease. Over generations, the processes of genetic drift
and natural selection will further isolate these two sub-populations from one another such that
eventually members of these two groups will be incapable of reproducing with each other. This
results in speciation.

5. Genetic mutation or recombination:

This might be due to, eg. Environmental factors, resulting in DNA changes severe enough such
that the germ cells of two groups cannot fuse with each other or it might result in the
emergence of new variations. This leads to the generation of a new species.

Acquired and Inherited Traits:

Traits developed during the lifetime of an individual are called acquired traits. Acquired
characters are changes in characteristics which occur in non-reproductive tissues. The changes
in the non-reproductive tissues cannot be passed on to the DNA of the germ cells. Hence, such
acquired changes are not inherited by the progeny. For example, tailless mice (if the tail is
removed by surgery) cannot produce tailless progeny. The essence of the idea of evolution is
the change in frequency of certain traits or genes over generations.
All those traits that pass from one generation to the next generation through the DNA in germ
cells are known as inherited traits.

How did life originate on Earth?

Evidence suggests that the Earth originated along with the solar system after the Big Bang.
Hence, the origin of life is linked with the origin of the Earth.
Alexander I. Oparin and J.B.S. Haldane proposed for the first time that primitive life did arise
from non-living material.

Speciation:
It is the process of formation of new species; a process where a species diverges into two or
more descendant species. If a population splits into two populations that cannot reproduce with
each other, two new species are formed and these two non-interbreeding populations can be
called two independent species. In sexually reproducing organisms, speciation results from
geographical and reproductive isolation. Thus, two isolated sub-populations become more and
more different because of genetic drift and natural selection (favouring of different traits by
different environments). As a result, members of the two sub-populations cannot reproduce
with each other. The DNA changes are severe enough and the germ cells of the two different
groups cannot fuse with each other. Thus new species are formed.
Classification:
It means grouping organisms in similar or dissimilar groups on the basis of some
characteristics such as their body design in form and function. Classification is a reflection of
their evolutionary relationship, tracing common ancestors back in time, leading to an idea that
at some point in time, non-living material must have given rise to life.

Evidence of Organic Evolution:

The evolutionary relationship can be traced by identifying common characteristics.

1. Morphological and Anatomical Evidences:

Comparative anatomy and morphology shows both similarities and differences among present
day organisms and those that existed long ago.
Homologous organs are organs that are similar in structure and origin but different in function.
Example – the four limbs of mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians. Similarity in structure
and components of homologous organs is indicative of the fact that all these organisms have a
common ancestry.
Analogous organs are organs similar in function but different in structure and origin. Example
– wings of an insect, a bird and a bat; tubers of sweet potatoes (root modified) and tubers of
potatoes (stem modified). Similar habitat conditions have selected similar and adaptive features
in different groups of organisms, towards the same function.

2. Fossils:
They are preserved traces of living organisms. Fossils found in rocks support organic
evolution. Rocks are formed by sedimentation and a cross section of the Earth’s crust indicates
the arrangement of the sediments one over the other during the long history of the Earth.
Different sediments (of different ages) contain different life forms which possibly died during
the formation of the particular sediment.
Two ways to find out the age of the fossils are:
a) The fossils found closer to the Earth’s surface are more recent than the ones found in
deeper layers.
b) By detecting the ratios of the different isotopes of the same element in the fossil
material.
(Example: Isotopes of carbon are used in the Carbon dating method)

3. Comparison of Genetic Material:

DNA is the genetic material. Comparing the DNA of different species gives us the direct
estimate of how much the DNA has changed during the formation of these species. The DNA
during cell division lead to changes in the proteins that are made from this new DNA. These
changes accumulate from one generation to the next. This is then used to trace the changes in
DNA backwards in time and find out where each change diverged from the other. This is
known as Molecular Phylogeny. This method is now extensively used to define evolutionary
relationships. Molecular phylogeny approach is based on the idea that organisms which are
more distantly related will accumulate a greater number of differences in their DNA. Species
which are closely related will have more common DNA characteristics.
Evolution by Stages:
Evolution has taken place in stages. An organ may adapt for one function initially but later on,
it can become useful for quite a different function. For example, feathers of birds. To start with,
their function was to provide insulation from cold weather, but later on they became useful for
flight.
Hence, birds are closely related to reptiles as some dinosaurs had feathers though they could
not fly.
But birds adapted the feathers to flight.
When any structural change occurs in the organs such as eyes, even an intermediate stage such
as a rudimentary eye can be useful to some extent. All organisms ranging from insects, birds
and other vertebrates possess them. A flatworm named Planaria has very simple eyes that are
really just eye spots which detect light. Each stage of change gives a survival advantage.

Artificial Selection:
Many a time, very different looking structures evolve from a common ancestral design. For
example – The evolution of wild cabbage. Some genetic variation always exists in a
population. For centuries, man has been utilising genetic variation for improving the qualities
of domesticated plants and animals by selecting individuals having the desired traits and
separating them from those that do not possess such characters. The selected ones are inherited.
This process is called artificial selection.

Human Evolution:
In order to study the evolution of man, various tools such as time dating, excavation, studying
fossils and determining DNA sequences have been used. All humans are a single species.
Humans have not evolved from chimpanzees; rather both have a common ancestor a long time
ago. It is just that natural selection and genetic drift have together led to the formation of a
population that cannot reproduce with the original one. Study of evolution of human beings
indicates that all of us belong to a single species, Homo sapiens, which evolved in Africa and
spread across the world in stages. Evolution is simply the generation of diversity and the
shaping of the diversity by environmental selection.