Preview - Evolution Of Populations

Understanding the Mechanism of Inheritance

Remember that in this model, there are mice with two types of fur coat colors: light and dark. Observable characteristics (also called as traits) like fur color, eye color, or blood type are referred to as phenotypes. These phenotypes, including the color of fur coats is determined by the genes that a mouse has. 

There are two kinds of genes in this models that affect the fur coat color of mice. 

While answering the following questions, make sure that the "PREDATION?" box is unchecked. 

Questions

Please answer the questions below.

Change the sliders under the "Initial Settings" in the model. Make sure every time you change the sliders that you press SETUP afterwards so that you can actually see the effects of your new settings. Try to change the settings such that all the mice have light-colored fur. Once you get all mice with light fur, describe the initial settings you used.  

What will happen after lots of generations if the initial population of mice all have light-colored fur?

Run an experiment to prove or disprove your answer to the previous question and explain your observations.

What will happen after lots of generations if the initial population of mice all have dark-colored fur?

Run an experiment to prove or disprove your answer to the previous question and explain your observations.

In this model, "AA", "Aa", and "aa" are genotypes of mice. As we saw earlier, the fur coat color of a mouse is dependent on its genotype. Based on your investigations so far, can you say which of the three genotypes applies to each of our two fur-colors (light and dark)? 

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.