BIOL 3040 : Test 2 Notes
Document Summary
Darwin didn"t know the mechanisms for: the inheritance of traits by offspring, the factors maintaining inherited variation. 2 big problems darwin faced: selection can reduce variation, blending inheritance can further reduce variation, blending would further reduce variation by swamping favorable mutations in large populations, **not correct, just what people thought at the time. Things mendel still didn"t know : the actual biological mechanism for gene transmission (dna/genome biology, the factors maintaining inherited variation (mutation, recombination, etc) The three people who are responsible for discovery of dna*** Dna is wrapped around nucleosomes (which are composed of histones) Eukaryotic cells contain organelles which have their own genomes: mitochondria (animals and plants) (14,000-16,000 base pairs, chloroplast (plants, mitochondrial dna comes from the mom (unless paternal leakage) Making dna functional: basically, for natural selection to operate, genetic information in dna must affect the organisms phenotype, phenotype: an organisms observable, physical, developmental and behavioral characteristics, phenotype is affected by proteins (interacting with the environment).
