There are millions of other organisms by which

we directly and indirectly interact. The number

and the kinds of organisms living on earth at a
particular time is called biological diversity.

• The evolutionary theory is the scientific

explanation of the diversity of life.
Evolution or change over time, is the
process of how present-day organisms
have descended from ancient ones. A
theory is a well-supported, testable
explanation of a natural phenomenon.
Mechanisms of Evolution
There are several:
1. Natural Selection
2. Artificial Selection
3. Nonrandom Mating
4. Genetic Drift
5. Mutation
6. Recombination
7. Gene flow
 Natural Selection Fitness
ability of an
• Affects variation in a population as the individual to survive and
better adapted (more fit) individuals to reproduce in an specific
their environment survive and environment .
reproduce, passing on their genes to
the successive generations increasing The concept of
the frequency of favorable fitness is the central
characteristics in the population. process of evolution by
natural selection
• Nature “selects” which organisms will
be successful
Imagine that green beetles
are easier for birds to spot
(and hence, eat). Brown
beetles are a little more
likely to survive to produce
offspring. They pass their
genes for brown coloration
on to their offspring. So in
the next generation, brown
beetles are more common
than in the previous
generation.
 Over long periods of
Natural Selection time, natural selection
produces organisms with
improved body structures and
habitats. As a result, present-
day organisms are different
from their ancestors. This can
be explained by the principle
of descent with modification,
wherein species descend
through generations with
several changes over time.
This principle also implies that
organisms are related to one
another.
Another principle relating to evolution
is the principle of common descent,
which means that all organisms share
common ancestry. Using these
principles, we can think of a single tress
of life that links all organisms on Earth.
The Phylogenetic tree
Represents the
evolutionary relationships
among set of groups of
organisms called, taxa. The
tips of the tree represent
the groups of descendant
taxa and the nodes on the
tree represent common
ancestors of those
descendants. Two
descendants that split from
the same node are called
sister groups.
Types of Natural
Selection
DIRECTIONAL SELECTION
Happens when a change in the environment
causes a change in the observable spectrum of
phenotypes. In this process, organisms with a
phenotype that is well suited to their current
environment are more likely to survive.
Types of Natural
Selection
STABILIZING SELECTION
Occurs when intermediate phenotypes are
more likely to survive in the environment.

DESRUPTIVE OR DIVERSIFYING SELECTION

Occurs when extreme phenotypes are more
likely to adapt to the environment.
Artificial Selection

• Domesticated breeds have not

always been in their current
form. This change has been
achieved by repeatedly
selecting for breeding the
individuals most suited to
human uses. This shows that
selection can cause evolution.
 In artificial selection, nature provides
the variation among different organisms so
that humans can select the variations that
are useful to them. This can be done
through selective breeding.

SELECTIVE BREEDING
Involves choosing parents with particular characteristics
to breed together and produce offspring with more desirable
characteristics. Humans have selectively breed plants and
animals for thousands of years including: crop plants with
better yields.
This figure shows
how the artificial
selection was used
on the wild mustard.
Farmers have
cultivated numerous
crops from the wild
mustard by
considering the
desired traits in
breeding them; thus
different kinds of
vegetables were
produced.
 NONRANDOM
MATING
Contributes to the population
change from one generation to the
next. This is described as the
probability of mating with another
individual to the population.
Nonrandom mating may take two
forms, namely:
Inbreeding
Outbreeding
INBREEDING
• When individuals are more likely
to mate with their close relatives
than with distant relatives
• Individuals choose their mate
based on their genetic history
• This type of breeding is common,
and it changes the genotype
frequencies however the
frequency of alleles in the
population remains unchanged.
EXAMPLE:
Royal families
several years ago, when
they preferred marrying
only other royal members
to keep their bloodlines
“pure”
 INBREEDING

The problem in this type of breeding is that

there is a higher chance of inheriting disease
conditions caused by harmful recessive genes.

Inbreeding may also lower the population’s

ability to survive and reproduce, a condition called
inbreeding depression.
 OUTBREEDING
• Also known as “Assortative
mating”
• Happens when individuals select
distant relatives rather than close
relatives as their partners
• In this type of breeding,
individuals with similar
phenotypes are more likely to
mate.
HYPOTHETICAL EXAMPLES:
Blue-eyed rabbits are
more likely to mate with
other blue-eyed rabbits in a
mixed population of rabbits.
In humans, if short
girls prefer only short guys,
then there would be a higher
frequency of short alleles in
the population.
 GENETIC DRIFT

• The change in allele frequencies as a result of chance

processes.
• These changes are much more pronounced in small
populations.
 Directly related to the population numbers.
 Smaller population sizes are more susceptible to
genetic drift than larger populations because
there is a greater chance that a rare allele will be
lost.
Examples of Genetic Drift
• A) The Founder Effect:
A founder effect occurs when a new colony is started by a few
members of original population.
• Small population that branches off from a larger one
may or may not be genetically representative of the
larger population from which it was derived.
• Only a fraction of the total genetic diversity of the
original gene pool is represented in these few
individuals.
 Examples of Genetic Drift
• B) Population Bottleneck:
• Occurs when a population •The event may
undergoes an event in
which a significant eliminate alleles
percentage of a population entirely or also
or species is killed or
otherwise prevented from cause other alleles
reproducing. to be over-
represented in a
gene pool.
Bottleneck = any kind of
event that reduces the
population
significantly.....
earthquake....flood.....dis
ease.....etc.…
• An example of a bottleneck:Northern
elephant seals have reduced genetic
variation probably because of a
population bottleneck humans inflicted
on them in the 1890s. Hunting reduced
their population size to as few as 20
individuals at the end of the 19th
century. Their population has since
rebounded to over 30,000 but their
genes still carry the marks of this
bottleneck. They have much less
genetic variation than a population of
southern elephant seals that was not
so intensely hunted.
MUTATIONS
• Are inheritable changes in the genotype.
• Provide the variation that can be acted upon by natural
selection.
• Mutations provide the raw material on which natural
selection can act.
 Only source of additional genetic material and new
alleles.
 Can be neutral, harmful or beneficial( give an individual
a better chance for survival).
• Mutation is a change in DNA the hereditary material of life. An
organism’s DNA affects how it looks, how it behaves, and its
physiology—all aspects of its life. So a change in an organism’s
DNA can cause changes in all aspects of its life.
• Somatic mutations occur in non-reproductive cells and won’t
be passed onto offspring.
• For example, the golden color on half of this Red Delicious
apple was caused by a somatic mutation. The seeds of this
apple do not carry the mutation.
Types of Mutations
SUBSTITUTION ● May cause changes in protein
structure because the alteration of the
Occurs codon causes a change in the amino acid
when genetic produced
codon has one ●May cause silent mutation, wherein an
altered altered nitrogenous base still produces a
nitrogenous base. codon that encodes for the same amino
Substitution may acid.
cause the ●It may change an amino-acid producing
following effects: codon into a STOP codon, causing a
formation of an incomplete protein.
Types of Mutations
INSERTION Insertions and
Characterized by the addition deletions in the genetic
of extra set of base pairs in the material cause another
type of mutation known as
genetic material.
Frameshift.
This happens when
DELETION the information is no
Occurs when a set of base longer parsed correctly,
resulting in the production
pairs in the genetic material is
of useless proteins.
omitted.
Mutation can either be neutral or
beneficial…..

NEUTRAL
MUTATION
Affects the organism’s
phenotype but has no
impact on its survival or
reproduction.
Mutation can either be neutral or
beneficial…..

BENEFICIAL
MUTATION
Affects the phenotype of
organisms, resulting in
an increase in their
chances of survival or
reproduction.
Causes of Mutations
 DNA fails to copy accurately.

 External influences can create mutations.

 Mutations can also be caused by
exposure to specific chemicals or
radiation.
Recombination
Recombination
is simply the rearrangement of genes
• This process naturally
occurs during the crossing
over stage in meiosis,
where there is an
exchange of DNA between
homologous
chromosomes. Crossing
over enables the offspring
to have new gene
sequences, resulting in
variation of traits.
 l ow
e F
e n
G
Gene Flow (Migration)
• Is the movement of alleles into or out of a
population (immigration or emigration). Emigration happens
• Gene flow can introduce new alleles into a when organisms leave
gene pool or can change allele their habitat.
frequencies.
Immigration happens
• The overall effect of gene flow is to
when organisms enter
counteract natural selection by creating
another habitat and
less differences between populations.
live in it.
• Example:
• Plant pollen being blown into a new
area
• Gene flow is what happens when two or more
populations interbreed. This generally
increases genetic diversity. Imagine two
populations of squirrels on opposite sides of a
river. The squirrels on the west side have
bushier tails than those on the east side as a
result of three different genes that code for
tail bushiness. If a tree falls over the river
and the squirrels are able to scamper across it
to mate with the other population, gene flow
occurs. The next generation of squirrels on the
east side may have more bushy tails than those
in the previous generation, and west side
squirrels might have fewer bushy tails.
Gene Flow

Some individuals from a population of brown beetles might

have joined a population of green beetles.
That would make the genes for brown beetles more frequent
in the green beetle population.