A brief overview of Sickle cell anemia, a genetic disease that affects hemoglobin in the blood. [1:30]
Summarizes the key points about adaptations, mutation, evolution, and natural selection. Includes a few questions to check for understanding.
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This narrated animation schematically shows the process of protein synthesis. [3 min, 24 sec]
Even in species that look alike to us, individuals have variations in their DNA. Learn why this is important. [3:47]
Video and text present a good explanation of what mutations are. [1:41]
In this video profile adapted from NOVA scienceNOW, learn about geneticist and rock musician Pardis Sabeti, whose innovative insights into natural selection demonstrated how beneficial mutations spread quickly through a population. [5:04]
This pathway explores how we inherit our phenotypes and the origin of genetic diseases.
This simulation shows the spread of a favorable mutation through a population of pocket mice. Even a small selective advantage can lead to a rapid evolution of the population. [1:05]
Discusses conditions needed for the Hardy-Weinberg Law to hold true and demonstrates calculations involving allelic frequencies to illustrate this principle.
This pathway provides an introduction to heredity and how the biological process of meiosis leads to genetic diversity. The foundational concepts of Mendelian genetics are also reviewed. For a deeper look at this topic, we recommend the pathways Meiosis and Sexual Reproduction, Mendel's Experiments and Heredity and Modern Understandings of Inheritance from the OpenStax textbook Biology for AP® Courses.
Learn how mutations in genes can occur during DNA replication.
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Understand the difference between microevolution and macroevolution.
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Students learn about the growth of cancer through an analogy of a kitchen with an appliance running out of control. Together, student learners investigate case studies of three patients with lung cancer and determine the cell mutation which exists in each case.
This video segment describes the role of the sickle cell gene in natural selection. Footage courtesy of the PBS series Secret of Life: "Accidents of Creation." [4:49]
Students perform an activity similar to the childhood “telephone” game in which each communication step represents a biological process related to the passage of DNA from one cell to another. This game tangibly illustrates how DNA mutations can happen over several cell generations and the effects the mutations can have on the proteins that cells need to produce. Next, students use the results from the “telephone” game (normal, substitution, deletion or insertion) to test how the mutation affects the survivability of an organism in the wild. Through simple enactments, students act as “predators” and “eat” (remove) the organism from the environment, demonstrating natural selection based on mutation.
Students learn about mutations to both DNA and chromosomes, and uncontrolled changes to the genetic code. They are introduced to small-scale mutations (substitutions, deletions and insertions) and large-scale mutations (deletion duplications, inversions, insertions, translocations and nondisjunctions). The effects of different mutations are studied as well as environmental factors that may increase the likelihood of mutations. A PowerPoint® presentation and pre/post-assessments are provided.
This interactive will present the rules for designing precise nucleotide sequences
called PCR primers. Designing primers for a PCR reaction is an important step
because the way they bind to the template DNA dictates much of the success of
the PCR reaction.
Explore natural selection by controlling the environment and causing mutations in bunnies.
Psychology is designed to meet scope and sequence requirements for the single-semester introduction to psychology course. The book offers a comprehensive treatment of core concepts, grounded in both classic studies and current and emerging research. The text also includes coverage of the DSM-5 in examinations of psychological disorders. Psychology incorporates discussions that reflect the diversity within the discipline, as well as the diversity of cultures and communities across the globe.Senior Contributing AuthorsRose M. Spielman, Formerly of Quinnipiac UniversityContributing AuthorsKathryn Dumper, Bainbridge State CollegeWilliam Jenkins, Mercer UniversityArlene Lacombe, Saint Joseph's UniversityMarilyn Lovett, Livingstone CollegeMarion Perlmutter, University of Michigan
