The Origins of Variation for Natural Selection

State the “modern” definition of evolution

Changes in allele frequency in a population over time

Know the two main engines that generate variation

mutation

sexual reproduction (a.k.a. recombination)

Understand that mutations in DNA lead to changes in proteins (sometimes)

Describe what is known about the fitness consequences of mutation

Describe why variation in mutation rate exists in nature

Tradeoff between speed and accuracy

Difference in life span: longer lived organisms have more cell divisions

Describe how the amount of genetic information is increased

Gene duplication caused by unequal crossing over (figure 4.7)

Polyploidy via the “triploid block” (figure 4.12)

Activity of transposons

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