DNA Technology Revolution in Evolution.pptVIP

DNA Technology: Revolution in Evolution Why study (organic) evolution? Evolution: descent with modification To understand natural history of life on earth To understand disease processes and public health risks Immunity Host-specificity Risk assessment Divergence in a Population Darwin’s Disadvantages Didn’t have knowledge of principles of inheritance (but made very good predictions) Made analogy between natural selection and artificial selection (a good hypothesis) but didn’t have the skills to test it thoroughly Advances in Evolutionary Science:Contributions to the Neo-Darwinian Synthesis Principles of inheritance Linkage and mutation ‘Genes’ are the basis for inheritance and are found within chromosomes Discovery that DNA is the molecular material of genes, cracking genetic code Molecular mechanisms worked out for DNA replication and protein synthesis Multiple methods invented to study genetic variation and evolution Cross-sectional data Cross-sectional data (snap-shot in time) can be used scientifically to make deductions about a process Evolutionary science is like criminal forensics The crime may not have any witnesses The evidence is often patchy and comes in many forms In the absence of eyewitness accounts, DNA is often the most convincing evidence The best evidence is based on DNA sequence variation DNA Genetic Variation Results from Mutation Variation by Mutation is Compounded by Genetic Recombination Sexual reproduction Bacterial transformation Bacterial conjugation Virus-mediated gene transfer Other transfer between symbionts DNA technology Facilitates the study of heritable characteristics between individuals, within populations and higher taxa Population genetics studies- field studies of evolutionary processes Phylogenetics- infer evolutionary relationships (family trees) from genetic similarity Longitudinal vs cross-sectional Molecular (DNA) Methods Restriction Enzyme Digestion RFLP PFGE Ribotyping RFLP RFLP-restriction fragment length