Study Guide1: Learn about:
1.Darwin’s theory of evolution
2.Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium and how it is used
3. The origin of genetic variation
4.The different factors that affect allele frequencies and their characteristics
5. Population bottleneck /founder effect
6. What process results in adaptation?
7. The different types of natural selection
8. What is sexual dimorphism and how it affects sexual selection and evolution?
9. Give examples of how man influences evolution
10. The different ways species are defined and the flaws in their definitions.
11. Characteristic features of speciation
12. Features of allopatric and sympatric speciation
13. Prezygotic and postzygotic barriers
15. What is adaptive radiation?
16. What is a genome and what is the number of genes in the human genome
17. What is convergent evolution? Give example
18. Homologous (synapomorphies) and homoplastic traits
19. What are shared ancestral and shared derived traits?
20. What is the principle of parsimony?
21. Know how to read a cladogram(phylogenetic tree)?
22, What is systematics, taxonomy and phylogeny?
23. Hierarchy of categories in the classification system
24.What are monophyletic, polyphyletic and paraphyletic taxons (groups)?
25. How to construct phylogenetic trees? What is an outgroup and how is it used in constructing phylogenetic trees?
26. What are the different types of evidence used in constructing phylogenetic trees?
27. What is a molecular clock and how is it used?
28. What are the different ways by which a gene can evolve?
29. Compare synonymous substitutions, non-synonymous substitutions and psuedogenes. Which has the highest mutation rate?
30. What molecules are used to study evolution among closely related vs. distantly related species and why?
31.What is gene duplication? Give example
32. Differentiate punctuated equilibrium model with the gradual model of evolution.
33. What are homeotic genes? How do changes in these genes cause major differences in morphology between species?