Preview - Understanding Genetics And Evolution With Computational Models (Sol)

Getting to know the model

Click here to download the model.

Follow the instructions below to get started:

Open NetLogo folder and click on NetLogo Logging.

Open the 'Genetic Drift  and Natural Selection' NetLogo Model that you downloaded earlier.

This is also a model of a population of bacterial cells, E. coli, like the previous one.

The only difference is that there is something called '%-advantage' in this model. 

You can decide which type of E. coli  can have this selective advantage using another slider.

Let's start the simulation with the following conditions –

  • number-of-types = 1
  • carrying-capacity = “high”
  • ecoli-with-selective-advantage = “red”
  • natural-selection? ON
  • max-initial-population 1

Questions

Please answer the questions below.

Experiment 1:

Run the simulation with %-advantage = 0 for exactly 250 ticks. Record the number of bacteria in the population.

Repeat the experiment for 5 times.

Experiment 2:

Now run the simulation again with %-advantage = 1 for exactly 250 ticks. Record the number of bacteria in the population.

Repeat the experiment for 5 times.

Do you see any difference between the observations of experiment 1 and experiment 2?

If yes, describe the difference.   

What do your observations tell you about the relationship %-advantage and rate of reproduction in the model?

Explain why there might be relationship between %-advantage and rate of reproduction?

Notes

These notes will appear on every page in this lesson so feel free to put anything here you'd like to keep track of.