Investigating Genetic Diversity
Investigating Genetic Diversity
- Genetic diversity within or between species is determined by comparing the frequency of characteristics, DNA base sequences, mRNA base sequences, and the amino acid sequence encoded by DNA and mRNA.
- Students need to interpret data relating to the similarities and discrepancies in DNA base sequences and the amino acid sequences of proteins to suggest relationships between organisms within a species and between species.
- With the advent of gene technology, methods of investigating genetic diversity have shifted from inferring DNA differences from observable features to directly examining DNA sequences.
- Knowledge of gene technologies will not be tested.
- Quantitative investigations of variation within a species involve data collection from random samples, calculation of a mean value of the data and the standard deviation of that mean, and interpretation of the mean values and their standard deviations.
- Students are not required to calculate standard deviations in written papers.
- It should be remembered that when SD bars overlap, there is no significance.