BIO120H1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 16: Eichhornia Crassipes, Phenotypic Plasticity, Allele Frequency

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4 Nov 2016
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BIO120H1 Full Course Notes
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BIO120H1 Full Course Notes
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Important differences between adaptation and phenotypic plasticity: changes in phenotype due to adaptation involve changes in allele frequencies, changes in phenotype due to plasticity do not. Imagine a population of rabbits that, over several generations, get darker fur. Maybe this is because their habitat is changing, and the darker fur allows them to blend in better and avoid predation. If we could demonstrate that a. there were heritable genetic changes in the population that led to differences in fur colour and b. rabbits with darker fur have higher fitness, then we would consider this adaptation. Now imagine an individual shedding white fur in the spring and growing in darker fur. This rabbit has the same genes in the spring that it had in the winter, it has changed its phenotype, with no underlying change in genotype. This is an example of phenotypic plasticity: populations adapt, individuals acclimate. A single organism cannot adapt in the evolutionary sense of the word.