Evolution Class Experience

 Module 14: Human Evolution // Class Reflection When I first transferred to K-State from a community college, I learned that to get a degree in biology I would need to take Evolution. To be honest, I dreaded the idea of it so I chose to major in Life Science instead. However, I had to take Biological Anthropology which was a whole semester of what we covered in Module 14 - Human Evolution. I learned about evolution in my biology class in particular Animal and Plant Biology (Organismic Biology). It was then that I realized that human evolution is not my favorite biology subject. This class which is simply called Evolution completely changed my perspective about what Evolution is all about.  This class has been one of my favorite classes mostly for various reasons. First, repetition is integrated into the course. I went over the concepts a minimum of four times for each module through lectures, exercises, videos, and blog posts. Secondly, the R exercises challenged me in sooooo ...

 Break from blogging this week!

Module 11: Speciation // Alternative Blog Post           This year, I have had the honor of doing several things. I was accepted into the UMKC STAHR program in 2020, fortunately, it was not canceled. The program was virtual so by the time school started I was very familiar with zoom! Then, I become a year-long UMKC STHAR Ambassador. The program provided professional development and medical education. At K-State, I am a Class 2020 Snyder Fellow. This program helped gain professional development with a huge emphasis on leadership. I learned the importance of community and how it helps EVERYONE be successful. I was able to apply this knowledge in a couple of ways. First, I worked with leadership at K-State to assess the sense of community felt among minority pre-health (pre-med, pre-pa, pre-nursing. etc) students in both their pre-health club and advising. Second, I became part of the Intercultural Leadership Council, a joint council between the Department of ...

 Module 10: Sexual Selection  How is it possible for female pipefish ( Microphis deocata ) to court a male pipefish when is often the opposite? Figure 1: Female pipefish ( Microphis deocata ) [1] In class we learned that sexual selection explains sex differences so this evolutionary force must act differently in each sex. Often males tend to court a female because typically females are able to be choosy when selecting their mates. My hypothesis:   Sexual Dimorphism in female pipefish demonstrates that low variation in fitness and weak sexual selection is found in males leading to female pipefish to compete by advertising for mates as they now get chosen due to intersexual selection.  In the family of Syngnathidae, including pipefishes, have male pregnancy. This predisposes males to limit female reproductive success leading sexual selection to act more strongly on females with leads to female-female competition and male choice (reversed sex role) in pipefish...

Module 6: Evolutionary Mechanisms II - Mutation, Genetic Drift, Migration, and Non-Random Mating What is inbreeding? The mating of organisms or individuals that are closely related through common ancestry is inbreeding. Homozygosity is increased when inbreeding which means the frequency of AA will increase which will eventually become fixed for the A gene. The greater the degree of homozygosity the more uniform the offspring will be. [3]  What are the benefits of inbreeding that may lead to the evolution of assortative mating? Advantages of inbreeding include increased uniformity and prepotency (ability to pass on traits to offspring), and desired traits and breeding types can be fixed. Homozygosity is increased when inbreeding which means the frequency of AA will increase which will eventually become fixed for the A gene. The greater the degree of homozygosity the more uniform the offspring will be. [3] This may have lead to assortative mating in which pair bonds are formed on the...

Module 6.1 Evolutionary Mechanism II - Migration, Genetic Drift, Migration, and Non-Random Mating Blog #1 - How migration affects the polymorphisms in snakes  Observed phenotype distributions in mainland and water snakes Migration is the movement of alleles between populations with geographic variation which is also known as gene flow. The one-island model of migration suggests that the impact of migration is greater on smaller populations (island) than larger populations (mainland). This occurs due to the smaller genetic diversity in the population.  Figure 1: Migration Image Figure 2: Image of the islands in Lake Erie  Phenotype D : striped phenotype (provides camouflages in the leaf litter of forest streams) Phenotypes B & C : Reduced stripping  Phenotype A : Gray Color phenotype or stripless phenotype (adaptive on islands) Figure 3: Data on the frequency of different phenotypes on various mainland and island snake populations  Mainland Snakes:  Onta...

Evolutionary Medicine I: Aging and Disease The following blog post based of the "Role of "Western Diet" in Inflammatory Autoimmune Diseases" by Manzel et al. Introduction: Autoimmune diseases share common hallmarks which include multifactorial etiologies, autoimmune pathomechanisms that involve T cell-mediated, and a chronic clinical course that requires life-long disease management.  Such autoimmune diseases include: multiple sclerosis (MS) Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) Inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) such as Crohn's and ulcerative colitis (UC) Type 1 diabetes (T1D) Psoriasis (Ps) What contributes to the development of the inflammatory autoimmune disease:  Monozygotic twin studies of genetic factors contributing to autoimmune diseases have shown that there is a low concordance rate. Additionally, the genetic basis in affected populations has remained constant and does not explain the dramatic increase of autoimmune diseases.  There is a high prevalence in Western...