Transcript CQ#1

Cross-Dressing Salmon

By Tom Horvath SUNY College at Oneonta 1

CQ#1: Which statement best describes natural selection?

A. Survival of the fittest.

B. The strongest individuals get to reproduce.

C. The best adapted individuals survive and reproduce.

D. Survival and reproduction is a matter of luck.

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Typical Salmon Life Cycle

• • • • • • • • • • • Female salmon dig the redd (gravel nest) with tail.

Male protects redd from other potential spawners & attracts females.

Females deposit eggs while male fertilizes eggs (external fertilization).

Embryos hatch and develop into alevins.

Alevins emerge as fry from the redd and start actively searching for food.

After a period of growth in fresh water, anadromous species will start their downstream migration to the sea.

Silvery smolts undergo a series of physiological and morphological changes that acclimate them to the salt water conditions.

Smolts feed and grow to fully developed adult salmon. Adult salmon return to their natal stream to spawn (reproduce).

Most salmon spawn only once during their lifetime (semelparous). The majority of salmon species die within a week of spawning.

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Movie Clip

http://www.arkive.org/atlantic-salmon/salmo salar/video-09a.html?offset=0pt 5

CQ#2: Out of all the eggs a female lays, how many hatchlings (or smolts) do you think will survive to spawn?

A. 50% (50 out of 100) B. 10% (10 out of 100) C. 1% (1 out of 100) D. 0.1% (1 out of 1000) E. Less than 0.1 %

Mass of fertilized salmon eggs 6

About 0.03% survive & reproduce themselves

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Which are the lucky few who make it to reproduce?

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Charles Darwin’s Theory of Natural Selection

It is not just random luck.

Some individuals have a better chance of surviving and reproducing than others.

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CQ#3: Are all these smolts ABSOLUTELY identical?

A: Yes B: No 10

Variation in salmon translates into variations in survival and reproductive success.

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Theory of Evolution by Natural Selection

More offspring produced than survive to adulthood (OVERPRODUCTION).

Variation among individuals of a species.

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What good is variation?

Talk to your neighbor and list as many characteristics a salmon may posses that helps it survive.

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ADAPTATION

Any characteristic that improves the survival or reproductive success of an organism.

Often the result of natural selection.

Organisms match closely with their environment.

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Survival is only half the story – you have to reproduce to pass on those good traits that aided survival to this point.

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Theory of Evolution by Natural Selection

More offspring produced than survive to adulthood (OVERPRODUCTION).

Inheritable variation among individuals of a species.

Best adapted individuals survive and reproduce (UNEQUAL REPRODUCTIVE SUCCESS).

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Typical Dominant Male Phenotype

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Movie Clip

• • Focus on the male defending redd.

Time point in clip is 0:25.

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The most dominant males (usually largest and most aggressive) successfully defend their redds and inseminate the eggs. Smaller males that also have the kype lose out in head-to-head competition with larger males.

CQ#4: Are we seeing “survival of the fittest” in action here?

A. Yes B. No 19

A Different Type of Male Female Mimic

Lack dominant male characteristics (e.g., no kype).

Appear more female-like.

Disadvantage: They can’t compete head-to-head with dominant males either, but….

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Why do these non-dominant males persist in the population over time?

Why don’t female mimics get weeded out through natural selection if they are not fit?

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CQ#5: Why are female mimics still found in each generation?

A. Some outcompete the dominant males in the redds.

B. They appear from mutations randomly each generation.

C. They have a different reproductive strategy from dominant males and it works.

D. Some females change into males under stressful environmental conditions.

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Cross-Dressing Salmon

Female mimics can stay near the redds because dominant males don’t see them as competition; they think they are females.

These fish get a brief chance to inseminate a few eggs before being ultimately bumped out by dominant males.

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CQ#6: Even though female mimics are not dominant, are they fit?

A. Yes B. No 24

Survival of the Fittest?

Darwinian fitness: contribution an individual makes to the gene pool of the next generation relative to the contribution of others.

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Fitness can be compared with relative values (values from 1 to 0)

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A fitness value of 1 is assigned to the phenotype with the highest representation.

All other phenotypes are assigned based on their reproductive success relative to the dominant type.

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Fitness Value Example

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Dominant male phenotype produces 300 male offspring in the next generation.

Female mimic phenotype produces 50 male offspring in the next generation.

Small male phenotype produce only 5 male offspring.

Dominant Male Phenotype – Fitness = 300/300 = 1.0

Female Mimic Phenotype – Fitness = 50/300 = 0.17

Small Male Phenotype – Fitness = 5/300 = 0.02

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Natural Selection

Analyzing change in frequency of traits in a population:

Three patterns emerge:

Directional selection

Stabilizing selection

Disruptive selection

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Natural Selection

Directional Selection Individuals of one extreme phenotype favored.

Disruptive Selection Both extreme phenotypes favored; intermediate phenotypes selected against.

Stabilizing Selection Individuals with intermediate phenotype favored; Extreme phenotypes selected against.

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Directional Selection

Individuals of one extreme phenotype favored Population with no natural selection Population under directional selection Body Size of Salmon

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Stabilizing Selection

Individuals with intermediate phenotype favored; extreme phenotypes selected against Population under stabilizing selection Population with no natural selection Body Size of Salmon

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Disruptive Selection

Both extreme phenotypes favored; intermediate phenotypes selected against Population with no natural selection Population under disruptive selection Body Size of Salmon

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CQ#7: Given our fitness value from the example, which pattern of selection would we expect in the salmon population?

A. Directional selection B. Stabilizing selection C. Disruptive selection D. Unnatural selection

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CQ#8: Do individuals have to be the “strongest” to be fit?

A. Yes B. No 34

CQ#9: Which of these traits might confer fitness upon an individual?

A. Being sneaky and tricking the dominant males into letting you hang around the spawning females.

B. Having an awesome hook on your jaw and large body size.

C. Having sperm that are extra good at finding and fertilizing eggs.

D. Being extra good at storing fat, which will fuel all that waterfall jumping while migrating upstream.

E. Any of the above will increase fitness.

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Slide Credits

Slide 1 , Slide 19 , and Slide 24 Description: Spawning salmon. Author: Andrew Holland, Timberwolf Photography, [email protected]

Source: The Adams River Salmon Society Link: http://www.salmonsociety.com/2006_Photo/AH6s.jpg Clearance: ©Andrew Holland, used with permission. Slide 3 Description: Diagram of the salmon life cycle. Source: USDA Forest Service—Tongass National Forest Link: http://www.fs.fed.us/r10/tongass/districts/mendenhall/fishcam/lifecycle.shtml Clearance: Public domain, a work of the United States Federal Government under the terms of Title 17, Chapter 1, Section 105 of the US Code. Slide 6 and Slide 8 Description: Mass of salmon eggs.

Source: Bonneville Power Administration, United States Department of Energy Link: http://www.bpa.gov/corporate/BPANews/Library/images/fish/ Clearance: Public domain, courtesy of BPA.

Slide 7—Left Description: Survival chart for an average salmon family.

Source: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Link: http://www.fws.gov/r5cneafp/survival.gif

Clearance: Public domain, a work of the United States Federal Government under the terms of Title 17, Chapter 1, Section 105 of the US Code.

Slide 9 Description: Water-colour portrait of Charles Darwin.

Author: George Richmond Source: Wikimedia Commons.

Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Charles_Darwin_by_G._Richmond.jpg

Clearance: A faithful reproduction of an original two-dimensional work of art from the late 1830s. The work of art itself is in the public domain and its copyright has expired. This applies to the United States, Australia, the European Union and those countries with a copyright term of life of the author plus 100 years or fewer.

Slide 10 and Slide 13 Description: Salmon smolts.

Source: Bonneville Power Administration, United States Department of Energy Link: http://www.bpa.gov/corporate/BPANews/Library/images/fish/ Clearance: Public domain, courtesy of BPA. Slide 11 Description: Mass of salmon.

Source: Bonneville Power Administration, United States Department of Energy Link: http://www.bpa.gov/corporate/BPANews/Library/images/fish/ Clearance: Public domain, courtesy of BPA.

Slide 17 Description: Male salmon showing hook nose (kype).

Source: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Link: http://www.fws.gov/r5cneafp/hookjaw.jpg

Clearance: Public domain, a work of the United States Federal Government under the terms of Title 17, Chapter 1, Section 105 of the US Code.

Slide 20 and Slide 33 Description: Male and Female sockeye salmon.

Source: Fisheries and Oceans Canada Link: http://www.pac.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/recfish/Species/sockeye_e.htm

Clearance: Permissible non-commercial reproduction in accordance with Fisheries and Oceans Canada.

Slide 22 Description: Illustration of single salmon.

Source: USDA Forest Service—Tongass National Forest Link: http://www.fs.fed.us/r10/tongass/districts/mendenhall/fishcam/images/sockeye_female.jpg

Clearance: Public domain, a work of the United States Federal Government under the terms of Title 17, Chapter 1, Section 105 of the US Code.

Slide 23 Description: Sockeye salmon spawning in an Alaskan stream.

Author: Wyatt Rivard Source: Dreamstime.com, ID 8063677 Clearance: Copyrighted, licensed, royalty free.

Slide 25 Description: . Source: USDA Forest Service—Tongass National Forest Link: http://www.fs.fed.us/r10/tongass/districts/mendenhall/fishcam/lifecycle.shtml Clearance: Public domain, a work of the United States Federal Government under the terms of Title 17, Chapter 1, Section 105 of the US Code.