One of the findings from Strickland et al. 2019, was that certain color morphs among Chelymorpha alternans beetles are more common at some field sites than they are at other sites. Strickland and colleagues used cross breeding experiments to investigate these patterns and found evidence that color variation was mainly due to Mendelian inheritance. In other species, geographic variation in coloration might not be due to Mendelian genetics. (a) What is another possible explanation for geographic variation in coloration? (b) What sort of experiment could you use to test this alternative explanation?
Genetic Variation
Genetic variation refers to the variation in the genome sequences between individual organisms of a species. Individual differences or population differences can both be referred to as genetic variations. It is primarily caused by mutation, but other factors such as genetic drift and sexual reproduction also play a major role.
Quantitative Genetics
Quantitative genetics is the part of genetics that deals with the continuous trait, where the expression of various genes influences the phenotypes. Thus genes are expressed together to produce a trait with continuous variability. This is unlike the classical traits or qualitative traits, where each trait is controlled by the expression of a single or very few genes to produce a discontinuous variation.
One of the findings from Strickland et al. 2019, was that certain color morphs among Chelymorpha alternans beetles are more common at some field sites than they are at other sites. Strickland and colleagues used cross breeding experiments to investigate these patterns and found evidence that color variation was mainly due to
(a) What is another possible explanation for geographic variation in coloration?
(b) What sort of experiment could you use to test this alternative explanation?
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