EVOLUTION

Evolution is the change in inherited characteristics of a community of organisms and

is responsible for creating the many species on this planet. Evolution primarily
occurs via a random mutation in the genetic code of an organism. Three bases pairs
in the exon region of the DNA determine a codon which in term denotes a specific
amino acid. It is interesting to note that an amino acid does not determine a codon
due the degeneracy of the triple code. A change in the base pairing could change an
amino acid in the primary sequence of a protein. This could change the tertiary
structure of the protein as there may be different hydrogen or disulphide bonds. If
this protein is advantageous, it is more likely to be passed on to future generations.
There are various types of mutation that could cause a change in the DNA base
sequence. A nonsense mutation occurs when a change in base sequence suddenly
codes for a stop codon. This would have drastic consequences as protein synthesis
could stop midway through a protein and thus this is very rarely favorable in terms
of evolution. A frame-shift mutation occurs when a sequence of base pairs are
deleted. A direct substitution of base pairs is called a mis-sense mutation. This
sometimes has no visible effect as there is more than one codon for each amino
acid. Potential reasons include the ketone-enol tautomerism exhibited by guanine
and thymine as well as the amino-imino tautomerism shown by cytosine and
adenine. This causes a reversal of the base pairing rule (G binds with T and A with
C). Furthermore as cytosine is an unstable nitrogenous base, it can spontaneously
deaminate to form uracil and then bind with an adenine. In fact this deamination is
so common that the lack of uracil in DNA is a consequence of evolution (when uracil
is now detected, the cell realizes that this should be a cytosine and an enzyme
reaminates the base, thus reducing the number of mutations). Nitrous acid induces
the deamination of the bases in DNA so is a mutagen. This is often a problem a
mutagens are carcinogenic but if the mutation is advantageous, then it will be
passed on to future generations. It is interesting to note that most mutations do not
lead to evolution for two reasons: they are disadvantageous and they are stopped. If
a mutation is not favorable, the organism is less likely to reproduce and pass on the
mutation so it will eventually die out. There are DNA repair mechanisms to detect
faulty DNA e.g. base excision repair which removes faulty parts of the DNA helix.
Furthermore, some mutations may induce apoptosis thus ensuring that the mutation

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is never passed on. Thus the potential causes of mutation resulting in evolution are
numerous.
These mutations could lead to a change in characteristic and this could lead to one
of three types of selection. Disruptive selection occurs when a characteristic tries to
avoid a certain value; stabilizing selection is when a characteristic tries to go to one
certain value and directional selection occurs when there is a continual increase or
decrease of a characteristic.
The main method to represent evolutionary relationships is a phylogenetic tree. The
closer together two organisms are on this tree, the closer their evolutionary
relationship. To create a tree is often very hard but is done by comparing the base
sequences of the organism. Often, the introns of the DNA are compared as any
mutations here are more likely to be passed on as they will have no effect on the
organism. Two organisms with very similar base sequences must be quite closely
related so can be placed together on a phylogenetic tree. Furthermore, the
sequence for Cytochrome C is often studied it is in all eukaryotic organisms. In fact
to study the geographical origins of the human population, mitochondrial DNA
(mtDNA) is used. This is because all of the mitochondria come from the egg which
will only contain the mothers mtDNA. This means that the mtDNA is directly passed
from mother to offspring so there is not genetic variation caused by the crossing of
the chiasmata during meiosis. This means that any changes can be clearly
identified. In fact, the approximate rate of mutation per generation is known so by
comparing two mtDNA samples, the numbers of generations to a common ancestor
can be estimated.
One major example of evolution is the endosymbiosis theory which states
mitochondria were once free living bacteria. They were then absorbed into another
organism by endocytosis and they formed a symbiotic relationship. This provided
the

organism

with

advantageous

characteristics.

One

potential

negative

consequence of evolution is the development of antibiotic resistance. MRSA is a

commonly quoted superbug that has resistance to many antibiotics, making it
very difficult to treat. Speciation also shows the consequences of evolution.
Sympatric speciation occurs when two groups of the same species are in the same
area but behavioral differences prevent a member of one group from mating from
the member of the other group. Allopatric speciation occurs when two groups of the
same species are geographically separated (it was this kind of speciation in the
Galapagos Islands between in the finch population that led to Darwin developing his
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theory of evolution). In both cases, as the two groups cannot mate with each they
evolve differently. Sometimes this happens to the extent that when they try to mate
with each other again, they cannot produce fertile offspring as they are genetically
so different, thus two different species have evolved. A final consequence of
evolution is that the Hardy-Weinberg principle is not completely accurate as it
assumes that no mutations occur between generations and that all mating patterns
are random.
To conclude, there are many possible causes of evolution and even more
possibilities. However, evolution is a continually changing field of research and one
particularly new branch is evolutionary game theory which combines behavioral
traits with evolution. On a final note, it is often thought that Darwins theory of
evolution is the only correct explanation of evolution. The field of epigenetics
suggests that perhaps the Lamarckian theory of evolution is not so absurd as the
DNA methylation and histone medication occurring in our daily lives, could be
passed on to future generations.

Madhi Elango