After watching this video you should be able to:
1. Explain the process of evolution by natural selection, and how it applies to:
- The development of antibiotic resistance in bacteria
- The development of cancer and anticancer drug resistance
- Changing fractions of the melanic forms of the peppered moth
2. Appreciate the effect of purifying selection on the mutations that are observed in living organisms
3. Discuss the differences between homologs, orthologs and paralogs, and the evidence that tells us proteins are homologs
4. Understand how divergent evolution produces proteins with new functions, and how it is different to convergent evolution
5. Recall the factors used to assess protein alignments, and how we tell if an alignment is statistically significant
6. Use phylogenetic trees to determine the order of events in the evolution of proteins or species.
Further reading: Stryer Chapter 6 and Lehninger chapter 1.5 (PDFs available on Canvas)
Timestamps:
Why should we should care? 00:19
Evolution by natural selection - 01:24
- bacteria 01:24
- cancer 05:07
- peppered moths 06:25
Molecular evolution - 09:09
- purifying selection 09:09
- homologs/orthologs/paralogs 12:10
- divergent/convergent evolution 14:18
- protein alignments 14:54
Phylogenetic trees - 22:13
What have we learned? 24:58