The Evolution of Populations


Population: the Smallest Unit of Evolution

One common misconception about
evolution is that individual organisms
evolve, in the Darwinian sense, during their
lifetimes

Natural selection acts on individuals, but
populations evolve

A population
−
Is a localized group of individuals that are capable of
interbreeding and producing fertile offspring

CANADA
ALASKA
MAP
AREA

Beaufort Sea

Porcupine
herd range
N
TE OR
RR TH
IT W E
O S
RI T
ES
•

Fairbanks

Fortymile
ALASKA

•
YUKON

herd range
Whitehorse

Figure 23.3
 
Genetic variations in populations
−
Contribute to evolution

Figure 23.1

Population genetics
−
Is the study of how populations change
genetically over time
−
Reconciled Darwin’s and Mendel’s ideas
−
provides a foundation for studying evolution

The modern synthesis
−
Integrates Mendelian genetics with the
Darwinian theory of evolution by natural
selection
−
Focuses on populations as units of evolution
 
Microevolution
−
Is change in the genetic makeup of a
population from generation to generation

Figure 23.2

The gene pool
−
Is the total aggregate of genes in a population
at any one time
−
Consists of all gene loci in all individuals of the
population

Mutation and Sexual recombination

−
Produce the variation in gene pools that
contributes to differences among individuals

- Produce the variation that makes evolution

possible

Mutations
–
Are changes in the nucleotide sequence of DNA
–
Cause new genes and alleles to arise

Figure 23.6
−
In sexually reproducing populations, sexual
recombination

Is far more important than mutation in
producing the genetic differences that make
adaptation possible

The Hardy-Weinberg theorem
−
Describes a hypothetical population in which
random mating occurs
−
Describes a population where allele
frequencies do not change


In real populations
−
Allele and genotype frequencies do change
over time

The five conditions for non-evolving
populations are rarely met in nature
−
Extremely large population size
−
No gene flow
−
No mutations
−
Random mating
−
No natural selection occurs
−
Three major factors alter allele frequencies and
bring about most evolutionary change

Natural selection

Genetic drift

Gene flow
 Factors affecting population

In the Bottleneck effect
−
A sudden change in the environment may drastically
reduce the size of a population
−
The gene pool may no longer be reflective of the original
population’s gene pool

(a)
Shaking just a few marbles through the
narrow neck of a bottle is analogous to a
drastic reduction in the size of a population
after some environmental disaster. By chance,
blue marbles are over-represented in the new
population and gold marbles are absent.

Figure 23.8 A
Factors affecting population


The Founder effect
−
Occurs when a few individuals become isolated
from a larger population
−
Can affect allele frequencies in a population
 
Understanding the Bottleneck effect
−
Can increase understanding of how human
activity affects other species

(b)
Similarly, bottlenecking a population of
organisms tends to reduce genetic variation,
as in these northern elephant seals in
California that were once hunted nearly to
extinction.

Figure 23.8 B
Role of natural selection in population

−
Natural selection

Accumulates and maintains favorable
genotypes in a population
 Variation Between Populations

−
Most species exhibit geographic variation

Differences between gene pools of separate
populations or population subgroups

1 2.4 3.14 5.18 6 7.15

8.11 9.12 10.16 13.17 19 XX

1 2.19 3.8 4.16 5.14 6.7

9.10 11.12 13.17 15.18 XX

Figure 23.10
 −
Some examples of geographic variation occur as
a cline, which is a graded change in a trait along a
geographic axis
Heights of yarrow plants grown in common garden

EXPERIMENT Researchers observed that the average size

of yarrow plants (Achillea) growing on the slopes of the Sierra
Nevada mountains gradually decreases with increasing
elevation. To eliminate the effect of environmental differences

Mean height (cm)

at different elevations, researchers collected seeds
from various altitudes and planted them in a common
garden. They then measured the heights of the
resulting plants.

RESULTS The average plant sizes in the common

garden were inversely correlated with the altitudes at
which the seeds were collected, although the height
differences were less than in the plants’ natural
environments.
Atitude (m)

Sierra Nevada Great Basin

Range Plateau

CONCLUSION The lesser but still measurable clinal variation

in yarrow plants grown at a common elevation demonstrates the Seed collection sites
role of genetic as well as environmental differences.

Figure 23.11