Question1: A champion watermelon farmer has asked you for advice. The farmer has a large patch of watermelons plants that produce giant, award-winning crops. She would like to breed even larger watermelons. The table below provides the size of 15 of her recent watermelon crosses.
Cross Midparent Melon size (kg) Midoffspring Melon size (kg)
1 62.7 60.8
2 57.6 58.0
3 64.4 58.0
4 54.3 59.7
5 61.3 56.6
6 62.5 56.2
7 58.9 62.5
8 58.2 57.4
9 56.3 53.4
10 62.7 56.7
11 63.9 57.9
12 57.3 63.6
13 55.9 57.4
14 62.8 62.1
15 62.5 61.3
– if the farmer selectively breeds her watermelons, will the next generation be substantially larger?
– Why or why not (provide quantitative evidence)
– What else would you suggest the farmer should try if she wants to win more giant watermelon contests?
Question 2: The last two lectures have focused on various forces and mechanisms that can change allele frequencies in a population. All of the mechanisms contributing to the process of evolution. We’ve covered the fundamentals of what each mechanism is and how it can act, but now let’s look at how specifically each mechanism changes allele frequencies of a population.
For this assignment, visit the website https://evound.shinyapps.io/AlleleA1Shiny/
The link should take you to a model simulator where you can alter the parameters of the system and observe how populations change in allelic frequency over time based on the mechanisms we have discussed. Change only one parameter at a time and observe what happens. Now change two parameters in combination.
– Document your trials and results and summarize what you observed below.
Question 3: Continue to experiment with the parameters on the Allele A1 modeling site. Based on your observations,
– rank the parameters in order of highest effect to smallest effect
– provide your reasoning below.