201.5.

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5.1_1 The diversity of the Insects
How did all this diversity happen? Because we, as Humans, live in the geological blink of an
eye, we tend to forget how old this really planet is. Indeed, it is hard for Humans to grasp the
idea of time that extends back 4.6 billion years ago when the planet was first formed. Once
that concept of deep-time is sinks in, the idea of this massive insect diversity become clearer.
5.1_2 Next image
Just to remind you, it is estimated that the planet is about 4.6 billion years old. Life appears
around 2.8 billion years ago. Amazing physical changes in the planet occurred from that time
point until the Cambrian period when we have the first fossil evidence for the arthropods.
Highly complex life forms explode during this short time period and by about 425 million
years ago, we start seeing the presence of insects. Insects may have up to 6-12 broods per year
so it is not inconceivable to hypothesize there have been several billion generations of insects.
Whole groups of organisms have evolved, flourished and gone extinct in that time period –
think trilobites and dinosaurs. Yet the insects are still here.

5.1_3 Last Universal Common Ancestor

Biologists who deal with the idea of deep-time and evolution suggest that what ties all life
forms on the planet together is the last universal common ancestor. LUCA, at 2.8 billion years
ago had already figured out using either DNA or RNA to code for proteins. Those codons are
still used by all living organisms today.

5.1_4 The nature of life – diversity and complexity

To ease us into the idea of this process of biological evolution, let’s look at this simple
diagram. What biological evolution had to play with are two factors, complexity and diversity.
The two concepts are not exclusive.

5.1_5 Complexity
Let’s look at how complexity might evolve. This is an organism that can be found in two
states, a single cell or a group of cells clustered together to form a single organism. When this
switch from single cell to cluster occurs, 4 genes are lost. What this means is still unclear but
one could envision that by clustering, a division of labor might occur that frees up some
redundant genes. Importantly, we can see how a single cell can form a multicellular organism.

5.1_6 Diversity and/or complexity

Putting the two concepts of complexity and diversity together and giving the process a lot of
time, interesting things happen with regards to life forms.

5.1_7 Biological evolution

So let me define what I mean by biological evolution. Biological evolution is the change in
heritable genetic composition of a population over time. A corollary to this is, Biological
evolution is the descent with modification from a common ancestor. Think of LUCA.
5.1_8 Biological evolution
The four central concepts on which the idea of biological evolution is based are: genetic drift,
gene flow, -- mutations and sexual reproduction -- and natural selection.

5.1_9 Factors in evolution -- Genetic drift

Genetic drift is an easy concept to understand. Best put - things happen! You may be the
fittest organism on the planet to survive in your niche but a comet hits and you’re toast. The
survivors of the comet strike may not be as well equipped to survive - BUT things happen –
and they DO survive.
5.1_10 Gene flow
To explain gene flow, let’s say that you are a brown colored beetle and for some reason -- you
wander off from your group of closely related relatives. You wander into a new population of
green colored beetles and decide to settle down and have children. Your genes are now mixed
into a new population that may confer new traits to your adopted group.

5.1_11 Mutation and sexual selection

We come to a more complex component of biological evolution, that of mutation and sexual
reproduction. There are several ideas intertwined in this concept but the bottom line is -- these
processes are very important in the creation of diversity.
5.1_12 How do variations come about?
How do variations come about? Three processes come into play, mutations, sexual
reproduction and epigenetic factors. The last process, epigenetic factors, is still not well
understood so I will not discuss it.

5.1_13 DNA overview

Let’s review the structure of DNA so that you can get a better understanding of mutations.
You are undoubtedly familiar with the idea that DNA is made up of nucleotides that
complement each other and form a double helix. That is usually as far as your high school
biology instructor went. It gets more complicated. DNA is wound around specialized proteins
and these proteins are, in turn, tightly twisted into a coil. The coils are looped and further
organized on a scaffold. The scaffolds are tightly packed into the structure you know as a
chromosome.

5.1_14 Chromosomes
Fortunately for us and other organisms that have a well-defined nucleus, we have two sets of
chromosomes. You can think of one being from your father and one from your mother. Be
thankful you have two. If something fails in one chromosome, there is a good chance the other
chromosome will have a functional back-up. But not always.

5.1_15 Mutations in genetic sequences..

Modern molecular biology has allowed us to decipher DNA coding. You can see a read-out of
a gene that I work with in the background. If the machinery that synthesizes the DNA were to
make a mistake and insert a G instead of a T, it might lead to serious consequences. The
change may lead to a mutated protein or worse yet, nothing at all. Or, it may have no
consequence at all.

5.1_16 Mutations
This image shows what a single base pair change can do. Let’s say the protein in question calls
for the amino acid – lysine. The normal code for lysine is TTC but there can be wobble at the
third codon. That’s a silent mutation that is still read in the same way. However, other
changes can lead to silent mutations, to nonsense mutations or to missense mutations. As you
can see, not all mutations lead to a problem but a nonsense mutation or a non-conservative
missense mutation spells change.
5.1_17 Mutations in DNA coding
Change in DNA coding can be benign, deleterious or in some cases advantageous.

5.1_18 How do variations come about?

A second way variations come about is through sexual reproduction.

5.1_19 Mitosis
Most of the cells in our body replicate through the process of mitosis. Cells merely clone
themselves.
5.1_20 Meiosis
However, in gamete forming cells, an entirely different process occurs. In this case, the cells
divide and divide again to eventually form gametes that have only one set of chromosomes.
This is entirely different from the rest of your body’s cells that have two copies.

5.1_21 Crossing over process

During the first meiotic division, the chromosomes duplicate, while lying in close proximity.
They are somehow cut at almost random sites and stitched back together again. This is called
crossing-over. Now -- we have a totally new combination on the chromosome that’s not existed
before. Eventually these cells will become gametes but will look somewhat different from the
parent cells.

When the sperm and egg come together at fertilization, there will be a further scrambling of the
genetic material to yield an offspring that is slightly different from the parents.