The Genetic Basis of Adaptive Melanism on Pocket Mice Essay examples --

Introduction Whats the problem? Examples of animals adapting to the environment have been known as out-of-the-way(prenominal) back as the case of the black peppered moths of England in the mid-1800s. In that case, wide populations of the black peppered moths were observed to change burnish in response to changes in their environment. More recently, bacteria have been known to develop resistance to antibiotic drug drugs, insects have developed various forms of resistance to insecticide, and plants have adapted to conform to higher levels of heavy metals in the soil and water. The problem is that it is difficult to conciliate the genes that stimulate adaptation for three reasons 1. Traits must be identified ground on how they affect fitness and their ecological relevance. In other words, we impoverishment to find a trait that clearly makes a difference in whether or not the animal survives. 2. It is challenging to analyze phenotypes when t here is petty(a) information known about genes. With the moths, nobody knows which of the moths genes are prudent for the changes in twist, so a genetic analysis is extremely difficult to do. 3. roughly fitness-related traits are a mixture of many genes. This makes it hard to pin cut down the adaptations as a result of the actions of one gene. So where do the mice rise up in? Dr. Nachmans research explores the connection between genotype and coat color in four populations of rock air hole mice. Rock pocket mice bonk in rocky habitats in the southwest U.S. and northern Mexico. In the 1930s, uncorrupted studies revealed that there was a close correlation between the color of a mouses coat, and the color of the rocks the mouse lived on. Light-colored mice... ...is mice, the alleles did not appear to be responsible for any changes in coat color. The similarity between coat color of the dark mice at Pinacate and the dark mice at Armendaris is probably due t o convergent evolution. The Armendaris mice probably evolved the same adaptation (dark coat color) through a rive genetic mechanism. An interesting research project might be to pay back the genetic basis of adaptation in the Armendaris population, and make comparisons. Any much(prenominal) results would be enormously useful in showing how evolution affects item-by-item genes. ReferencesNachman, Michael W. Hope E. Hoekstra, Susan L. DAgostino. The genetic basis of adaptive melanism in pocket mice. www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.0431157100. Feb. 26, 2003.Purves,William K., et al. Life The Science of Biology Sixth Edition. Massachusetts Sinauer Assoicates, Inc. 2001.