Biol 1M03 W24: Biodiversity, Evolution, and

Humanity

Evolution: a framework for

understanding life

Week 1: various sections covered from

Chapters 1-4, “How Life Works”

Jan 9th 2024

 Week 1: roadmap

What does it
Three of the The process
mean to say
greatest unifying of doing
that something
ideas in Biology Biology
is alive?

3. Life processes
1. Life is cellular
information
Textbook refs 2. Life evolves Predict
Lecture 1: Ch 1-3
Lecture 2: Ch 4
Lecture 3: Ch 1 The Tree of Life
 Learning objectives

You should be able to:

1. Name five fundamental characteristics of life
2. Describe the two components of the cell theory
3. Briefly explain the theory of natural selection and clarify the
two conditions that are necessary and sufficient for natural
selection to bring about evolutionary change in a population.
4. Explain the chromosome theory of inheritance
5. Read a phylogenetic tree and understand the role of
similarities and differences in constructing phylogenetic
trees.
6. Describe what biologists do, that is, how they approach
problems and why they do experiments.
 What Does It Mean to Say that
Something Is Alive?
All living organisms share five fundamental
characteristics

Can you name

them?
 What Does It Mean to Say that
Something Is Alive?
All living organisms share five fundamental
characteristics
1. Cells
• All organisms are made up of membrane-bound
cells.
2. Replication
• All organisms are capable of reproduction.
3. Evolution
• Populations of organisms are continually
evolving.
 What Does It Mean to Say that
Something Is Alive?
4. Information
• All organisms process hereditary information
encoded in genes as well as information from the
environment
5. Energy
• All organisms acquire and use energy
 What Does It Mean to Say that
Something Is Alive?
• Three theories form the framework for
modern biological science:
What is a theory, scientifically
speaking?
• An explanation for a broad class of phenomena
or observations.
• Supported by a wide body of evidence (as
opposed to a conspiracy theory).
• Differs from everyday usage of the word “theory”
which often carries meanings such as
“speculation” or “guess.”
 What Does It Mean to Say that
Something Is Alive?
• Three theories form the framework for
modern biological science:
– The cell theory
• What are organisms made of?
– The theory of evolution by natural
selection
• Where do organisms come from?
– The chromosome theory of inheritance
• How is hereditary information transmitted from
one generation to the next?
 What Does It Mean to Say that
Something Is Alive?
• Three theories form the framework for
modern biological science:
– The cell theory
• What are organisms made of?
– The theory of evolution by natural
selection
• Where do organisms come from?
– The chromosome theory of inheritance
• How is hereditary information transmitted from
one generation to the next?
 Life Is Cellular

• In the late 1660s, Robert Hooke and Anton

van Leeuwenhoek were the first to observe
cells.
• A cell is a highly organized compartment
– Bounded by a plasma membrane
– Containing concentrated chemicals in an
aqueous solution.
• The cell theory states that
– All organisms are made of cells
– All cells come from preexisting cells
Van Leeuwenhoek’s Microscope Made
Cells Visible
Animalcules: “concerning little animals…”
‘twas wonderful to see: and I
judged that some of these little
creatures were above a thousand
times smaller than the smallest
ones I have ever yet seen upon the
rind of cheese’

Letter from Leeuwenhoek to Oldenburg, 7 September 1674,

translated in Dobell C. 1958Antony van Leeuwenhoek and his
little animals, pp. 109–110. New York, NY: Russell and
Russell.

1) Seeing the Invisible

- video on A2L
Image taken from Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animalcule
Cells – the building blocks of life
Smallest Largest
~200 nm ~2,384 acres

Do you know what the smallest

and largest individual organisms
are?
 Cells – the building blocks of life
Smallest Largest
~200 nm ~2,384 acres
Mycoplasma gallisepticum Armillaria ostoyae
Bacterium, causes disease in chickens and The “humongous fungus”, causes root
many other bird species. disease in many conifer species

Image taken from Wikipedia:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Image taken from the Scientific American:
Mycoplasma_gallisepticum https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/str
ange-but-true-largest-organism-is-fungus/

5000 could fit side-by-side About 9.5 x larger than McMaster’s

within one mm entire campus (~300 acres)
2) Casselman (2004) -
article on A2L
 Where Do Cells Come From?

Two competing hypotheses

What is a
Hypothesis?
 Where Do Cells Come From?

Two competing hypotheses

What is a
•
Hypothesis?
A hypothesis is a testable statement that
explains something observed
• An experiment allows researchers to test
the effect of a factor on a particular
phenomenon
• A prediction is a measurable or observable
result that must be correct if a hypothesis is
valid.
 Where Do Cells Come From?

Two competing hypotheses

What is a
Hypothesis?
Important distinction:

Hypothesis Prediction
X (explanatory/independent variable) X (explanatory/independent variable)
affects/impacts increases/decreases
Y (response/dependent variable) Y (response/dependent variable)

Does not imply direction Implies direction

 Where Do Cells Come From?

Two competing hypotheses

• Spontaneous generation
(prevailing paradigm until mid 1800’s)
– organisms could arise spontaneously under
certain conditions
– bacteria and fungi that spoil foods such as milk
and wine
• springing to life from nonliving materials
• Cell theory (challenger)
– All organisms are made of cells and all cells come
from preexisting cells.
An Experiment to Settle the Question

• Louis Pasteur’s hypothesis:

– Cells arise from cells
– Cells do not arise by spontaneous
generation

How can you rephrase this into

the following statement:
X is required for Y?
An Experiment to Settle the Question

• Louis Pasteur’s hypothesis:

– Cells arise from cells
– Cells do not arise by spontaneous
generation

How can you rephrase this into

the following statement:
X is required for Y?
X = presence of preexisting cells
Y = cell growth
An Experiment to Settle the Question

• Hypothesis:
– The presence of preexisting cells is required for cell growth

• Null hypothesis
– The presence of preexisting cells is not required for cell
growth

• Predictions
– Cell growth will only be observed if preexisting cells were
already present
– Cell growth will be observed regardless of whether
preexisting cells were already present
Can Microscopic Life Arise From
Nonliving Matter?
Louis Pasteur Experimentation

Based on the results from this experiment, would

we say our Null hypothesis is rejected or not
rejected? Why
 Test your understanding
(quiz on A2L)
Content -> Evolution section -> Week 1 -> Quizzes
• What problem would arise in interpreting
the results if Pasteur had used:
1. Different types of broth in the two treatments
2. A ceramic flask for one treatment and a glass
flask for the other

3) Louis Pasteur’s Experiment -

video on A2L
Where did the first cell come from?

• First cells probably arose from non-life

early in Earth’s history by the process of
chemical evolution
• Hypothesized recipe for the origins of life:
– Genes, catalysts, and membranes
• Check out McMaster’s own Origins
Institute
4) McMasterUTV -
video on A2L
 Lecture 1 review

What does it mean to say that something is alive?

• There is no single, well-accepted definition of life. Instead,
we can identify five common characteristics that organisms
share.
• Three of the most influential unifying ideas in biology are the
cell theory, the theory of evolution, and the chromosome
theory of inheritance.
Life emerges from cells
• The cell theory identified the fundamental structural unit
common to all life.
 Lecture 1 review continued
• Because all cells come from pre-existing
cells, all individuals in a population of
single-celled organisms are related by
common ancestry.
• All of the cells present in a multicellular
organism
– Have descended from preexisting cells
– And are connected by common ancestry

In sexually-reproducing organisms:
All cells descended from a progenitor cell – the zygote, which
itself is derived from other cells (namely, an egg and a sperm)