Study Guide Zoonotic Diseases & Evolution

To-Do Date: Mar 29 at 9:30am

In order to understand the origin of SARS COV2, we need to understand evolution, natural selection and mutations. There are many misconceptions about evolution and this cartoon shows one nicely. The beaver would like to cut down more trees for food and building his/her lodge.  So he thinks very hard and wills  himself to have a chainsaw paw. Explain what is wrong with this idea?

 

 

Study Guide Questions ( your quiz will be built on these questions) 

1. Why is it important to understand the origin of SARS-COV2 virus? 

• • Why is it important to have scientist from different disciplines studying this question?
  • What type of evidence are they looking at?
  • What are the different hypotheses?

2. What is evolution? To understand this you will need to address the following

• • What is a gene?
  • What is a gene pool?
  • What reshuffles genetic information from generation to generation?
  • What is evolution in terms of frequency of genes?
  • What are 5 different mechanisms that can lead to evolution?
  • Which of these introduces new genes?
  • Which of these leads to adaptations?
  • What is an adaptation? 
  • What is natural selection in terms of genes, variations and adaptation to environment?

3. What is natural selection? 

• • Why does their need to be variability in the population for natural selection to occur?
  • Why does that variability need to be heritable?
  • Why does their need to be difference in reproductive success?
  • How does the environment determine which traits are most favorable?

4. How do mutations affect the genetic variation of a virus?

• • What are mutations?
  • How does the mutation in the DNA affect the RNA?
  • How do these  mutations affect the protein?
  • What mutations will have the greatest impact on protein amino acid sequence?
  • The least  impact?
  • What is the relation between mutations and protein shape, folding and function? 
  • How does the environment affect the impact of a mutation on the organism? 
  • How do mutations happen in day to day life of cells?
  • Why are mutations random? 

5. What is the connection between genes, proteins, phenotype and natural selection?

• • How does variation  in genes lead to variations in protein structure?
  • How does that variation in the protein structure lead to variation in phenotype?
  • How does variation in phenotype lead to differences in survival and reproduction? 

6. How do zoonotic diseases jump from animals to humans?

• • What are zoonotic diseases?
  • What ways that a human can contract a disease from animals?
  • What are the stages of a successful viruses life cycle?
  • What type of changes would there need to be for each stage in order to infect a new host (such as a human)? 
  • What is the role of mutations in the spillover of diseases from animals to humans?
  • What types of animals are most likely to have viruses that spill over  into humans?

 

Unit Assessment Problem Set Questions

C8 . Pick ONE contributor to the increase in zoonotic diseases and explain the potential solutions to that problem.  Is there anything that you can do to contribute to this solution?  There should be 3 parts to your answer a) an explanation of the contributor (ie WHY does deforestation or wild life trafficking lead to an increase in zoonotic diseases) b) What are the different types of solutions for this contributor- be specific and complete! and c) Is there anyway that you could influence this issue- either through personal actions, education, political actions  etc. 

C9. Explain why the larger the population of infected and unvaccinated people, the more likely it is for evolution of SARS-COV2 to evolve to be more transmittable? To answer this you need to include a discussion of mutations in viruses and natural selection. 

 

Zoonotic Diseases from Class.docx Download Zoonotic Diseases from Class.docx Document from class

Drawing from class