Lecture 7

Variation, competition, and

the effects of selection

March 31, 2000

Lecture 6,
revisited
 Natural selection
works by cumulative progress

Evolution by natural selection does

not depend on impossible events.

Natural selection is an extremely efficient

search process

Genetic Algorithms: computer

procedures based on variation and
selection, can solve hard problems
 The eye, revisited

Can use fossils to trace eye’s

history:
about 400-500 MY

Did not have to happen all at

once
The evolution of complexity:

Natural selection can account for

complex adaptations

Natural selection is the only known

process that can do so.
Complex solution spaces:
fractals
Complex solution spaces:
fractals
 Lecture 7

The Beginning
 What is evolution?

Purves et al:
change in genotypes in population

The Truth:
change in inherited traits within
a population, including genotype and
phenotype
 Population:

Any group of organisms capable of

interbreeding, and coexisting at the
same time and in the same place.
Conditions for Natural
Selection

Competition

Inherited variation
Mutation is the source of
variation
 The environment causes
variation in many traits

Phenotypic variation depends on

the relative contributions of genes
and environment

Temperature, nutrition, etc.

Variation can be measured:

Phenotype

Protein electrophoresis

Nucleic acid sequencing

Measure wingspan --
How much variation is found
in natural populations?

Lewontin and Hubby (1966)

Electrophoresis study of polymorphism in
Drosophila pseudoobscura

18 loci, five populations

Average: 30% of loci polymorphic

12% of individual genome
heterozygous
 The Hardy-Weinberg
Equilibrium

In the absence of other influences, the

frequencies of genotypes in a
population have characteristic values
that depend only on allele frequencies.
 The Hardy-Weinberg
Equilibrium
At equilibrium, the frequencies of
genotypes and alleles are the same in the
offspring as in the parent population.

There is no loss of alleles from one

generation to the next.

A population reaches equilibrium in a

single generation.
 Fitness (w)

The average reproductive success of

one genotype, relative to that of the
genotype with highest fitness.
 Selection coefficient (s):
the intensity of selection against a
genotype or phenotype

s=1-w

Fitness w 1.0 0.8 0.3

Selection coeff. s 0 0.2 0.7
Response to selection depends on:

strength of selection (s)

Show what you can do to the play-doh
shape variation present in population

how it represents a population

 Play-Doh demonstration

Show what you can do to the play-doh

shape

how it represents a population

 Three effects of selection
on populations:

Directional selection
Balancing (stabilizing) selection
Disruptive selection
Directional selection

Time

Individuals who died

before reproducing
Alleles with higher fitness increase
more rapidly when dominant than
recessive
Persistence of recessive lethal
allele under directional selection
Stabilizing selection
continuous trait

Time
 Stabilizing selection
discrete trait

Heterozygotes Both alleles persist in

favored stable equilibrium
Stabilizing selection on
frog calls

Male tungara frogs use calls

to attract females

Calls most attractive to

females are also most likely
to attract predatory bats
 Most traits originate by
directional selection but are
limited by balancing selection.
Disruptive selection
continuous trait

Time
 Disruptive selection
discrete trait

Heterozygote has lowest fitness

Unlikely that both alleles will persist

A trait maintained by
disruptive selection

Mimicry
 Mimics

Models

The mimics are homozygotes for a locus

with two alleles. The heterozygotes have
an intermediate color pattern and are not
 Conclusions

Variation and competition are needed for

selection to occur.

Variation and the intensity of selection

determine the population response to
selection.

Natural selection can explain change or

the lack of change.
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