1. Toby Bradshaw toby@u.washington.edu Office: Plant Lab, L-14 on the campus map campus map Phone: 206.616.1796 Office hours by appointment

2. BIOL 354 Foundations in Evolution and Systematics http://courses.washington.edu/biol354 For those trying to get into this course … Course staff: Andrew Eckert, Fernanda Oyarzun, Dou- Shuan Yang Textbook (reserve copies in Odegaard) Course website Syllabus Lecture topics/readings Discussion section topics/readings/assignments Lecture overheads Course policies (grading, plagiarism, etc.)

3. Goals for the course Learn to think evolutionarily, integrating evolutionary principles with your knowledge from other disciplines to address real-world problems in areas such as medicine, ecology, physiology, and conservation; Explore in depth some key concepts in evolutionary biology, moving from observed patterns of phenotypic variation to evolutionary hypotheses, experimental design, and data analysis;

4. Goals for the course Understand the historical, theoretical, and experimental bases for contemporary paradigms in evolutionary biology; Learn to read, understand, and apply knowledge obtained from the primary scientific literature; Communicate your knowledge of evolutionary biology through oral discussions and written papers; and, Prepare for advanced coursework or research in evolutionary biology if you so desire.

5. What was Darwin trying to explain? Why are there so many kinds (=species) of living things? How do new species arise? How do populations of organisms evolve over time? What produces the observed biogeographical patterns of extant and extinct life forms? How are species related to one another? How do organisms adapt to their environment?

6. Before Darwin, how were these things explained?

7. Darwin’s postulates make evolutionary biology an experimental science “Unlike that of physics, the fundamental paradigm of evolutionary biology has not changed in over a century, and it is sometimes depressing to think that we may be forever sweeping up behind the Darwinian elephant.” – Jerry Coyne

8. Darwin’s postulates Among individuals of a species, there is variation in phenotypic traits. At least some of this variation is heritable. Individuals vary in their ability to survive and reproduce (=fitness). Variation in some phenotypic traits (=adaptive traits) is correlated with variation in fitness.  The species will evolve by natural selection to become increasingly well adapted to its environment over time, as better adapted individuals reproduce at disproportionately high rates.

9. How might we test whether phenotypic variation is heritable (i.e., does it have a genetic basis)? Color and pattern in milk snakes Habitat preference in Mimulus (monkeyflower) Height in humans Intelligence in humans

10. Experimental tests for heritability Parents transmit discrete traits (e.g., seed coat color in Mendel’s peas) to offspring Trait variation is still observed even in “common gardens” Phenotypic correlation between parents and offspring Close relatives (including clones or identical twins) share more traits than less related individuals

11. Heritability V P = phenotypic variance V G = total genetic variance V A = additive genetic variance V D = dominance genetic variance V E = environmental variance V P = V A + V D + V E V G = V A + V D H 2 = V G / V P h 2 = V A / V P When clones are planted in common gardens, are we estimating H 2 or h 2 ? With parent-offspring regression, are we estimating H 2 or h 2 ?