One-Island Model of Migration- Module 6.1

 

    In general, the data lines up with what I would expect in the sense that the mainland populations have the majority of the individuals with phenotype D; the island populations show more variation among the other phenotypes. Migration would explain why the island populations have more diversity among phenotypes. The main reason behind migration is to find better living conditions, whether it be food, environment, resources, space, or other reasons. When the snakes decide to move from the mainland to the islands, they are contributing to the new gene pool. I would say that the reason for the presence of all four phenotypes would be due to travel back to the mainland (in this case the Peninsular mainland).  Even though many snakes are migrating away, some are still returning, which is why the phenotype is still present and not wiped out. In other words, the snakes are not migrating out "fast enough" in comparison to how often other snakes return. 

    One consequence of migration can be species invasion. If one species travels to another location, they could be taking away resources from the species that was already there. This can also contribute to impacting gene flow between populations. As we learned from the R exercise, genetic drift has a greater impact on smaller population than larger populations. Even though genetic drift occurs randomly, it can affect changes in population such as decreasing genetic diversity.

Comments

  1. Amanda DrouhardMarch 11, 2021 at 8:20 PM

    Hi Prutha,
    I love how you tied this back to the R exercise we did! In our breakout room for this R exercise, I remember we were talking about a system where the input was greater than the output, and I think you're completely right about how the number of snakes are not migrating out at a fast enough rate to remain in equilibrium with the number of snakes returning.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Jaden McDonaldMarch 12, 2021 at 8:35 PM

    Hi Prutha,
    I really like how you explained your answers in this blog post. I think you made you ideas very clear, and I would completely agree with everything you said. I also agree with Amanda that connecting this blog post to our R studio exercise was a really good idea!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Inbreeding- Module 6.2

       One benefit of inbreeding I can think of is acquiring certain preferred traits. One common example of inbreeding that I can think of is with dogs. When a specific dog breed is wanted or specific traits unique to a particular dog, inbreeding could be used to acquire those. With that, the gene pool would be fairly small and there wouldn’t be many as much genetic diversity. This is when assortative mating would be more common. This is when the preference to choose mates with similar phenotypes increases.      However, inbreeding also comes with many disadvantages. Recessive phenotypes could be more prominent with inbreeding, which could be a negative impact of the recessive trait is damaging. If too many recessive genes are inherited, they will be carriers for varying diseases. With that, there are many underlying health conditions that the animal would be predisposed to.      I guess one factor of inbreeding in terms of evolutio...
Read more

Kimura's Theory of Neutral Evolution- Module 7

       The one main difference between Kimura’s theory is that it says that changes in evolution are caused by genetic drift rather than natural selection. Kimura found that the protein polymorphisms observed were formed by genetic drift since their function did not change. Another important aspect of this theory is the removal of newly formed deleterious mutations.      The theory of evolution by natural selection is the one that is more commonly heard of. This theory was proposed by Darwin and it states that species change to adapt to their needs by inheriting heritable traits. One main facet of this theory is that it is assumed that more offspring is produced than the amounts that are able to survive.      They are both similar in the sense that they explain how organisms are able to adapt over time. Both theories describe how alleles are integrated. In Darwin’s theory phenotypes are what induce the change; in Kimura’s theory a ch...
Read more

Final Reflection- Module 14

     The overall idea I took away is that evolution is always occurring and there are many mechanisms and conditions that contribute to this. Some aspects can be observable to the eye while others work on a genetic level and make changes that way. Also, the speed of evolution varies, and adaptation is a big part of many populations. One important aspect I learned from the breakout rooms is that there can be multiple perspectives on one topic, and that sometimes there is no one specific answer, especially when hypothesizing about something.      From the R exercises, I learned how different factors such as mating, gene flow, genetic drift, migration, and natural selection impact a population; an important part of genetic diversity is heterozygosity. Even though the coding was difficult at first for me, I am glad I was able to learn this skill set. I was happy when I was able to figure out the coding by myself later in the course. I also learned how importa...
Read more