IISc- UNDERGRADUATE PROGRAM- 2015

Lecture notes in Organismal Biology- (UB 101) - Prof. R. Gadagkar

LECTURE 3: UNDERSTANDING WHAT HAPPENED WHEN 10 AUGUST 2014

• One of the dominant means of classification is based on morphology. There cannot

be a perfect definition for defining species and there can always be a working
definition meaning there is no universal definition of species. Most common working
definition of an organism is how it looks (morphology) - Morphospecies is common
definition of species.
• We need some principle to organise and classify life on earth. There have been
attempts in the past where all life forms on earth were classified into two major
categories.
• Prokaryotes & Eukaryotes – Fundamental dichotomy in the structure of cells.
Prokaryotes- No true nucleus, no organelles, 70s ribosomes; Eukaryotes- True
nucleus, organelles (mitochondria), 80s ribosomes. This is
fundamental classification of life and thus now it is called as two
domains of life.
• Note: Evolution is a phenomenon and natural selection is one of
the mechanisms that explain evolution.
• Superimposing this on the kingdoms, bacteria now are prokaryotes
and plants/animals are Eukaryotes. Carl Woese developed the
technique of building universal tree of life using 16S ribosomal RNA
by phylogenetic taxonomy.
 IISc- UNDERGRADUATE PROGRAM- 2015
Lecture notes in Organismal Biology- (UB 101) - Prof. R. Gadagkar

• “Do unto others 20% better than you would expect

them to do unto you, to correct for subjective error.”
― Linus Pauling, a brilliant scientist who probably
was ahead of time in his thinking.
• Always read things you partially understand. Always
be ahead of your ability to understand.
• The idea, that, sequence of molecules can be used to
construct tree of life was first given by Linus Pauling.
Linus Pauling for the first time established molecular
structure of a protein. He was the first one to
recognise that genetic change is more or less
constant in time at least in some parts of genes.
• Pre Molecular day family trees had fuzzy boundaries giving unclear relationships.
Today with data from molecules helps us to resolve these fuzzy boundaries and give
much more clear idea about interrelationships of life
forms.
• Evidence of common descent of living things can be
sourced to DNA, fossils etc. By studying inherited
species’ characteristics and other historical evidence,
one can reconstruct evolutionary relationships and
represent them on a “family tree,” called a phylogeny.
• Example of a primate phylogenetic tree. OWM- Old
world monkeys; NWM- New world monkeys. Old World
(Africa, Asia, and Europe). New World (the Americas).
• It is possible to put time tag on events that have
occurred in the past.
• Some regions of DNA change at a constant rate with
time and hence the name molecular clock. Molecular
clocks use DNA (also proteins, amino-acids etc.) sequences to estimate the time,
when the two species (of interest) diverged. They are frequently used to estimate
the time of speciation (a process by which biological species occurs) events.
• Calibration - dates of the samples themselves can be used to calibrate the molecular
clock. Using this principle people have come up with ways of building tree of life.
• It is possible to date objects (living organisms) ex: Fossils and the technique known
as carbon dating in the case of archaeological expeditions. In case of much older
fossils carbon cannot be of any use.
• Isotopes – Stable (remains constant, 12 C 6) and unstable (14 C 6).
 IISc-- UNDERGRADUATE PROGRAM- 2015
Lecture notes in Organismal Biology-
Biology (UB 101) - Prof. R. Gadagkar

Radioactive Carbon -14

14 dating

• Relies on half-life
life decay of radioactive
elements to date rocks and materials
directly.
• Dating fossils- As soon as a living
organism dies, it stops taking in new
carbon. The ratio of carbon-12
carbon to
carbon-1414 at the moment of death is
the same as every other living thing,
but the carbon-14 14 decays and is not
replaced. The carbon-14 14 decays with its half-life
half life of 5,700 years, while the amount of
carbon-1212 remains constant in the sample. By looking at the ratio of carbon-12
carbon to
carbon-1414 in the sample and comparing it to the ratio in a living organism, it is
possible to determine the age of a formerly living thing fairly precisely.
precisely
• Scientists figure out the dates of evolutionary events using methods (such as DNA) to
extrapolate backwards to estimate dates.
• Confusion between who was the
nearest relative between Gorilla
and Chimpanzee to humans. With
accrued data & recent
technological advance it is now
clear that Chimpanzee is our
closest relative. In other words,
wo
more time has elapsed since
gorilla split-up.
• Less convergence in DNA but
convergence is more in characters like anatomy, morphology etc.

Lecture notes prepared by Chetan Nag K.S.