Lecture 1

Introduction to evolutionary biology

1. Introduction to evolution section

2. How evolution is studied

3. Biodiversity & adaptation

3. Projects in the Barrett lab

Relevant reading in Coyne – Chapter 1

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 Readings & background

1) Chapters in Coyne “Why Evolution is True”

2) I will assume a background knowledge from high

school of the following topics:

Mendelian genetics, inheritance, structure of

DNA, mitosis and meiosis, chromosomes

If you are not familiar with these topics see advice

on Blackboard
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 Lectures on Evolution
1. Introduction to evolutionary biology
2. Darwin’s big idea and how it changed biology
3. What Darwin saw – biogeography of biodiversity and adaptation
4. Neo-Darwinism and why genetic variation matters
5. The measurement and maintenance of genetic variation
6. Sex, reproductive systems and evolution
7. Populations structure, gene flow and genetic drift
8. Natural selection and adaptation
9. Species, speciation and hybridization
10. Phylogenetics and macroevolution
11. Contemporary evolution and invasive species
12. Biodiversity, extinction and conservation

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Levels of biological organization
• Molecules
• Cells
• Organisms
• Populations
• Communities
• Ecosystems
This section will focus mainly at the population
level as this is primary unit of evolution
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 Questions in evolutionary biology
• Scope of question
– small: answering small tractable questions can help
contribute towards solving a big question
– large: unlikely to be answered by one experiment;
requires multiple lines of evidence e.g. Why did sex
evolve? Why is most biodiversity in the tropics?

• Type of question – how vs. why questions

– how questions (= proximate questions) involve
determining the physiological or genetic mechanisms
responsible for aspects of a trait
– why questions (= ultimate questions) involve determining
the ecological function and adaptive significance of a trait

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 Approaches used in
evolutionary biology
A variety of approaches are used to address
questions; the best studies use more than one
source of evidence:

• Observational – describe and quantify

• Theoretical – develop models – verbal, graphical,
mathematical
• Comparative – obtain same data from many species
• Experimental – manipulate a system to address a
specific hypothesis; requires an experimental design
and statistical analysis

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 Important assumptions about evolution
verified by scientific study
• Organisms on earth have changed through time
• The changes are gradual not instantaneous
• Lineages split or branch by speciation resulting in
the generation of biodiversity
• All species have common ancestors
• Most evolutionary change results from natural
selection - the only process responsible for the
evolution of biodiversity and adaptation

Biodiversity and adaptation are therefore

products of evolution
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 Biodiversity & Adaptation
Some simple definitions

Biodiversity – the variety of life on earth; the number

and kinds of living organisms in a given area

Adaptation – has two meanings; state or process

• Any trait that contributes to fitness by making an

organism better able to survive or reproduce in a given
environment [as a noun]
• The evolutionary process that leads to the origin and
maintenance of such traits [as a verb]
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Biodiversity & Adaptation
Darwin’s evolutionary
legacy

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 Theory of Evolution

• The central unifying concept of biology

• Affects many other areas of knowledge

• One of the most influential concepts of

Western thought

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 “Nothing in biology makes
sense except in the light
of evolution”

Theodosius Dobzhansky
(1900-1975)

Fruit fly geneticist and founder

of the modern evolutionary
synthesis

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 Evolutionary biology today

Major sub-fields:

• Evolutionary mechanisms (microevolution)

• Evolutionary history (macroevolution)

The best studies integrate information from both

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 Evolutionary mechanisms
• Determining the ecological and genetic
mechanisms responsible for evolutionary
change
• Involve population-level studies of natural
selection, adaptation and speciation using
diverse organisms
• Testing of theoretical models by experiments in
the laboratory and field

Largely process orientated and experimental

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 Evolutionary history
• Determining evolutionary relationships of
organisms in terms of common ancestry -
phylogenetics
• Affinities of organisms provide a basis for
classification – taxonomy & systematics
• Comparative data from many sources e.g.
biogeography, paleontology, morphology,
development and genomics

Largely pattern-based and non-experimental

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Projects from the Barrett lab illustrating
approaches to the study of
biodiversity & adaptation

• Discovery of Darwin’s missing form of

water hyacinth & patterns of genetic
diversity

• Novel adaptation promoting outcrossing in

plants

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Water hyacinth - Eichhornia crassipes 16

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Water hyacinth blocks drainage
canal in Florida, USA

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Water hyacinth blocks river in Vietnam

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Mystery of the missing short-styled (S) morph
of water hyacinth

L M

JBS Haldane (1960)

J. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc.
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 Found it by chance in
the Amazon in 1974 and
so began the romance !

Biotropica (1977)
Scientific American (1989)

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 Short-styled morph restricted to Lowland S.
America – example of a strong founder event*

Founder event = introduction of a small

number of individuals that possess a small
sample of the genetic diversity of the
source population

Biotropica (1977); Scientific American (1989) 21

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 Pantanal April 2015
An enduring relationship
with Water Hyacinth
and relatives

Nicolay Cunha

Eichhornia azurea

Eichhornia crassipes
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Water hyacinth study – summary

• world’s most serious invasive aquatic plant now

distributed world wide in tropical and subtropical areas

• reproduces by both clonal & sexual reproduction

• three mating types (morphs) restricted to native range

• most reproduction in the introduced range by cloning

• massive founder event associated with human

introduction to alien range

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 Babiana ringens
(Iridaceae)
Rat’s tail

• Enigmatic species
endemic to the
Western Cape

• Unusual traits
include ground
flowering & naked
inflorescence axis

• What pollinates this

plant and what is
the function of the
rat’s tail?

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 Primary feeding strategies of
flower-visiting birds
New World Old World

Hovering Perching 25

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 Evolution of a
bird perch

Bruce Anderson Caroli de Waal

• Specialized bird perch in

Babiana ringens promotes
cross-pollination by
malachite sunbirds

Nature (2005)
Annals of Botany (2012)
Amer J Bot (2012)

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 Malachite sunbird the sole pollinator
Malachite
of Babiana sunbird pollination
ringens usesofthe
Babiana
bird ringens
perch

Specialized
Field manipulative bird perch
experiments promotes
and use of geneticmating Nature
success2005
markers demonstrate the perch promotes efficient
Nature 2005
cross-pollination and high seed set
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Perch removal results in significant reductions
in fertility and outcrossing

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Nature (2005)
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Babiana bird perch study – summary
•birds are major plant pollinators and either hover (NW)
or perch (OW) during nectar feeding

• Babiana ringens (Rat’s tail) has an unbranched

inflorescence axis that functions as a bird perch
facilitating nectar feeding

• experimental removal of the perch lowers fertility and

increases self-fertilization

• the perch is an adaptation promoting plant reproductive

success

• further studies are required to determine the

mechanisms responsible for the origin of the perch 29

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 Lecture 1 – Key things to know

People – Dobzhansky, Darwin

Topics & concepts – theory of evolution, micro-

and macroevolution, approaches & assumptions in
evolutionary biology, biodiversity & adaptation,
founder events, clonal propagation, bird pollination,
perch function, reproductive success

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 Next Lecture - 2
Darwin’s big idea and how it changed
biology

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