Ilona Kariko

Biology

Natural Selection Lab- PhET Simulation

Pre-Lab Questions
1. What variables can you influence in this lab?
Mutation (Brown fur, long tail, long teeth), environment (arctic), Selection factor (wolves, food),
genes (dominant or recessive)
2. Define what a genetic mutation is. How do genetic mutations happen? How often?
Genetic mutation is when a part of the DNA of an organism changes. It happens randomly
through random protein change and through generations.
3. What do the terms fitness and adaptation mean? What is the difference between the two?
Fitness is a condition when a trait or certain variant increases in amount compared to other
traits or variants while adaptation is when an organism adjusts to an environment.
4. What selection factors might effect an animal population besides the ones used in this lab?
Climate,predatorsandtheirpreference,foodvariants.
Designing The Experiment
In this Lab you will be controlling the mutations and environment of a population of rabbits. Your
will create four hypotheses and design an experiment to test each one. Your hypothesis will
follow the format where you fill in the (...) with your own ideas and reasons.
1. I hypothesize that brown rabbits will be less likely to survive under wolves within the arctic
environment, because they will be highly visible in the environment
2. I hypothesize that long tailed rabbits will be more likely to survive under wolves within the
arctic environment, because they have longer tails to help them escape the predator
3. I hypothesize that long toothed rabbits will be more likely to survive under food within the
equator environment, because they will have more advantage in eating.
4. I hypothesize that brown fur rabbits will be not affect the chance of survival under food within
the equator environment, because the need for camouflage is not important in this case.

***You must make at least one hypothesis for each of the three different types of phenotype
mutations***

Ilona Kariko
Biology

For each experiment you must have a control (no mutation) and fill in the following chart
Experiment
and
Hypothesis

Pheno
type

Selective
Factor

CONTROL
Group
Initial
Population
at F3

CONTROL
Group
Final
Population

Experment
Group
Initial
Population
at F3

Experiment
Group
Final
Population

Conclusion/
Observation

Brown
fur

Wolves

13

139

Being able to
camouflage in the
environment gives
a major
advantage for the
rabbits to escape
the predators,
thus making them
have a higher
chance of survival

Long
tail

Wolves

13

107

57

Long tails helps

the rabbit escape
predators, thus
increase their
chance of survival

Long
teeth

Food

13

20

52

Long teeth helps

the rabbits get
more food thus
increase their
chance of survival

Brown
fur

Food

13

Type of fur does

not affect the
chance of survival
under food

For each of the experiments, begin by adding a friend and a mutation. Wait until the F3
generation before adding the selective factor. After adding the selective factor let the
simulation run for another 3 or 4 generations.
Use the population numbers from the chart to get you numbers for the table, remember
you can zoom in and out on the chart to get more accurate reads.
Repeat for experiments 2, 3 and 4

Ilona Kariko
Biology

Post-Lab Questions
1. Based upon your evidence from the simulation what conclusion are you able to make
about each of the three different types of phenotypes in rabbits?

2. What happens to animals that cannot compete as well with other animals in the wild?
They will eventually die through generations

3. Sometimes animals that are introduced into an area that they never lived in before, outcompete and endanger resident species, why do you think this happens?
Because they have yet to adapt to the environment, thus they have traits that is
disadvantageous in surviving in the particular environment

4. If only one species is considered the "fittest", why do we still have so many variations
among species. Why do some birds have very long pointy beaks, while other birds have
short flat beaks?
Because of the different niche between organisms. Each have different needs and traits
that would be advantageous for themselves
5. How do you think diseases can affect natural selection?
Yes. A disease can attack a certain species but those with the DNA that makes them
resistant to the disease will have more advantage compared to those who dont and will be able
to survive
6. How does this simulation mimic natural selection? In what ways does this simulation fail to
represent the process of natural selection?
This simulation shows how different traits can give organisms advantages or
disadvantages in surviving in a certain environment. However there are often times when the
simulation gives misleading results, for example making all the rabbits die even after mutation.

Ilona Kariko
Biology

Extension- Changing the Dominance and

Recessive Alleles
Take one of the experiments from the lab. Recreate the same
experiment, EXCEPT when you add the mutation EDIT THE
GENES by switching the dominant and recessive allele for that
trait. Make a hypothesis, fill in the chart again and compare the
results to your initial experiment.
Experiment
and
Hypothesis

Pheno
type

Selective
Factor

CONTROL
Group
Initial
Population
at F3

CONTROL
Group
Final
Population

Experment
Group
Initial
Population
at F3

Experiment
Group
Final
Population

Conclusion/
Observation

Hypothesis
below

Long
Teeth

Food

17

10

Those with long

tooth have
advantage in
survival, thus able
to increase in
population.
However,
compared to the
previous
experiment with
dominant long
tooth allele, in this
experiment, the
growth of the long
toothed rabbits
population is much
slower.

Ihypothesizethathavinglongteethasarecessiveallelewillmakethelongtoothedrabbitsespeciallyrare
andthattheywillbemorelikelytosurviveunderfoodwithintheequatorenvironment,becausetheywill
haveadvantageineating.However,thepopulationofthelongtoothedrabbitwillgrowveryslowly.
1. Did switching the alleles for dominant and recessive have any impact on the population of
rabbits? If so Why? In nothing changed Why not?
Yes, The population growth of the long-toothed rabbit is much slower because they have
recessive allele, making the trait show up more rarely

Ilona Kariko
Biology

2. Two parent rabbits are both heterozygous for the trait. Create Punnet squares for the
original experiment and the new experiment (with the changed alleles). What are the
phenotype ratios of the Punnet squares? Does this evidence support your finding? and
how?
T

TT

Tt

Tt

tt

In the original experiment, the dominant allele will be the long-toothed. Thus, if both
parents are heterozygous, 3 out of four of the offspring will have long tooth. On the other hand if
long toothed allele is the recessive allele, only one out of four of the offspring will have long
tooth. Thus this proves that having the trait as a recessive allele will make the population growth
slower.

3. If this new experiment were to run longer would the end result be the same or different
from the original experiment?
Same, because eventually, the short-toothed rabbits will die and the long-toothed rabbits
will survive. All rabbits eventually will have both alleles as the recessive long toothed allele.

Ilona Kariko
Biology

Extension- Working with PedigreesSwitch from the population chart to the pedigree
chart
Begin by adding a friend and a mutation. Wait until
the F5 generation. Copy the Pedigree for two
rabbits (described below) using the key. Assume
that male rabbits are on the left and female rabbits
are on the right.

Find these two rabbits, make sure they have at least four generations:
1. Select a rabbit that has the mutation.
2. Select a rabbit without the mutation but with parents or grandparent with the mutation.
Answer the following questions:
1. How could using a pedigree be helpful?
This pedigree helps us telling how the trait and mutation is passed down through
generations
2. What does it mean to have a yellow triangle above the rabbit?
The rabbit is dying

3. What does it mean when a rabbit has a red X over it?

The rabbit has died

4. How accurate are the pedigrees used in this lab? Did each couple only have one baby?
The pedigree only show the parents of one organism, and not all the offspring of the parents.
Therefore, it is difficult to tell if each parents only have one offspring and it is also difficult to
compare the result of a punnett square with the actual result of the simulation.