Molecular Evidence
What does molecular evidence study?
It studies DNA, RNA, and protein sequences to determine evolutionary relationships.
What was the protein examined in T-Rexes called?
Collagen Type I
Why are zebrafish used widely in biomedical research?
They contain around 70-80% of the genes that humans do, so they serve as a good tool to understand the human structures and genome more thoroughly.
What percent similarity in DNA do chimpanzees and humans share?
98%
What are flagella?
They are complex tail structures found on bacterial organisms that help them to move.
Who wrote the first paper on molecular evidence?
Wilson and Sarich wrote their paper on ape sequences and human divergence.
Who was Chris Organ?
A postdoctoral researcher at Harvard University that used 89 amino acids of T-Rexes to analyze protein structures.
What are orthologues?
Orthologues are genes in different species that evolved from a common ancestral gene via speciation.
Name one condition of an equilibrium population.
No mutations, random mating, no natural selection, large population, and no gene flow
What is the theoretical probability of a functional mutated protein fold?
1 in 1074
Name one potential controversy from molecular evidence.
Answers will vary:
1. Random mutations cannot generate vastly complex structures
2. Convergent Evolution Refutes Darwinism
3. Vestigial structures And Junk DNA have been wrongly predicted
Who were John Asara and Lewis Cantley?
They sequenced another protein of T-Rexes, compared it to modern-day organisms, and derived important information that shaped our understanding of evolution.
Why does whole genome duplication pave a pathway for evolution?
How are mutations useful, in this context?
Mutations created divergence between both organisms, making them follow their own paths of evolution.
Why did convergent evolution hurt molecular evidence?
It determined that birds had no definite origin, due to genetic matches with different lizard and alligator species, which ultimately hurts the principles of evolution.
What does molecular evidence aim to establish?
Why would scientists have used X-ray imaging to capture the feathers of birds and dinosaurs?
(Correlation to fossil record); the imaging helped scientists to analyze the skeletal structures, which may either be homologous or analogous, between both organisms.
Analyze why scientists might contradict the WGD process.
All evolved genes may not be transferred between organisms; therefore, there might not be as strong of a relationship using WGD.
Why did the chimpanzees and humans show divergence?
Mutations, over the course of millions of years, slowly separated the species, creating divergence in their evolution and leading to the distinct forms of life we see today.
Essentially, pseudogenes were misinterpreted as junk DNA; however, they aid in the repair of DNA. In context, vestigial structures also serve important functions. The misinterpretation of both pseudo genes and vestigial structures.
Why is this considered sound evidence for evolution?
Molecular technologies identify DNA, RNA, and protein sequences to reveal genotypic similarities and phenotypic expression, ultimately divulging evolutionary relationships between two organisms.
Why is this considered sound evidence for evolution?
The collagen protein was a phenotypic result of both organisms’ genomes. Due to similar phenotypic expression, they contained similar genes. Thus, they must have derived from a common ancestor, which reveals the evolutionary link that birds and dinosaurs have today.
Why is this methodical for proving evolution?
It is sound evidence because it analyzes the evolution of genes between two species, which shows how certain species developed mutations and began to thrive under natural selection, the key mechanism of evolution.
How does this example prove evolution?
It analyzes the genetic sequences of chimpanzee and human genomes, identifies a sole determinant—mutations—which created evolutionary divergence, leading to two evolved species that differ in phenotypic expression.
The development of new technologies have revealed errors in Darwinian lines of evolution, such as the flaws in random mutations on the complexity of structures.