Types of Variation

What is Variation in Biology?

●​ Variation is defined as differences between individuals of the same species
●​ Phenotypic variation is the difference in features between individuals of the same
species
●​ Some of these differences are caused by differences in genes, which is genetic
variation
●​ Phenotypic variation can be divided into two types depending on how you are able to
group the measurements:
○​ Continuous Variation is when there are very many small degrees of difference
for a particular characteristic between individuals and they are arranged in
order and can usually be measured on a scale
○​ Examples include height, mass, finger length etc. where there can be many
‘inbetween’ groups
○​ Discontinuous Variation is when there are distinct differences for a
characteristic
○​ For example, people are either blood group A, B, AB or O; are either male or
female; can either roll their tongue or not - there are no ‘inbetweens’
●​ When graphs of these data are plotted, continuous variation gives smooth bell curves
(a result of all the small degrees of difference), whereas discontinuous gives a ‘step –
like’ shape

Height is an example of continuous variation which gives rise to a smooth bell-shaped curve
when plotted as a graph
Blood group is an example of discontinuous variation which gives rise to a step-shaped
graph

Phenotypic Variation
●​ Phenotypic variation can be caused in two main ways:
○​ It can be genetic - controlled entirely by genes
○​ Or it can be environmental - caused entirely by the environment in which the
organism lives

Genetic Variation
●​ Examples of genetic variation in humans include:
○​ blood group
○​ eye colour
○​ gender
○​ ability to roll tongue
○​ whether ear lobes are free or fixed
Whether earlobes are attached (lobeless) or free (lobed) is an example of genetic variation

Environmental Variation
●​ Characteristics of all species can be affected by environmental factors such as
climate, diet, accidents, culture and lifestyle
●​ In this instance ‘environmental’ simply means ‘outside of the organism’ and so can
include factors like climate, diet, culture, lifestyle and accidents during lifetime
●​ Examples include:
○​ An accident may lead to scarring on the body
○​ Eating too much and not leading an active lifestyle will cause weight gain
○​ Being raised in a certain country will cause you to speak a certain language
with a certain accent
○​ A plant in the shade of a big tree will grow taller to reach more light

Genetic and Environmental Causes

●​ Discontinuous variation is usually caused by genetic variation alone
●​ Continuous features often vary because of a combination of genetic and
environmental causes, for example:
○​ tall parents will pass genes to their children for height
○​ their children have the genetic potential to also be tall
○​ however if their diet is poor then they will not grow very well
○​ therefore their environment also has an impact on their height
●​ Another way of looking at this is that although genes decide what characteristics we
inherit, the surrounding environment will affect how these inherited characteristics
develop
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Mutation
●​ Mutations are genetic changes
●​ Most mutations have no effect on the phenotype as the protein that a mutated gene
produces may work just as well as the protein from the non - mutated gene
●​ Rarely, mutations lead to the development of new alleles and so new phenotypes
and if they do, most have a small effect on the organism
●​ Occasionally, the new allele gives the individual a survival advantage over other
members of the species
●​ For example:
○​ A bird develops a mutation leading to a change in feather colours
○​ This makes it more attractive to birds of the opposite sex
○​ Which causes the bird to breed more frequently and have more chances of
passing on the mutated phenotype to the next generation
●​ Mutations can also lead to harmful changes that can have dramatic effects on the
organism - for example, sickle cell anaemia in humans
●​ Mutations happen spontaneously and continuously but their frequency can be
increased by exposure to the following:
○​ Ionising radiation (e.g. gamma rays and X - rays) - which can damage bonds
and cause changes in base sequences
○​ Some non-ionising radiation (e.g. ultra-violet) - can also damage bonds and
cause changes in base sequences
○​ Certain types of chemicals - for example chemicals such as tar in tobacco
●​ Increased rates of mutation can cause cells to become cancerous, which is why the
above are linked to increased incidence of different types of cancer

Mutation: Extended
●​ Genetic variation in populations can be caused by a variety of sources:
○​ Mutations
■​ Mutations are random genetic changes to the base sequence of DNA
■​ New alleles form through these random changes to DNA
○​ Meiosis
■​ New allele combinations form through segregation
○​ Random mating
■​ Which partnerships form for sexual reproduction
○​ Random fertilisation
■​ Which sperm and egg combinations occur during sexual reproduction

Adaptations & fitness

●​ Adaptive features can be defined as:
Inherited features that help an organism to survive and reproduce in its environment.
●​ It is possible to describe adaptive features of an organism using information
provided, e.g. from images or data
Adaptive features can be identified in images of unfamiliar organisms, e.g. here a fennec fox
can be seen to have large ears, pale fur and furry feet

Hydrophytes & Xerophytes: Extended

Extended Tier Only

Hydrophytes
●​ Plants adapted to live in extremely wet conditions
●​ Common adaptations include:
○​ Large air spaces in their leaves for flotation, to keep the leaves close to the
surface of the water where there is more light for photosynthesis
○​ Small roots as they can also extract nutrients from the surrounding water
through their tissues
○​ Stomata usually open all the time and mainly found on the upper epidermis of
the leaf where they can exchange gases much more easily with the air
 ●​

Hydrophytes are adapted to live in wet conditions such as ponds

Xerophytes
●​ Plant adapted to live in extremely dry conditions
●​ Common adaptations include:
 ○​ Thick waxy cuticle - the cuticle cuts down water loss in two ways: it acts as a
barrier to evaporation and also the shiny surface reflects heat and so lowers
the temperature
○​ Sunken stomata: stomata may be sunk in pits in the epidermis; moist air
trapped here lengthens the diffusion pathway and reduces the evaporation
rate
○​ Leaf rolled with stomata inside and an inner surface covered in hairs - traps
moist air and prevents air movement across stomata which reduces
transpiration
○​ Small leaves: many xerophytic plants have small, needle-shaped leaves
which reduce the surface area and therefore the evaporating surface
○​ Extensive shallow roots allow for the quick absorption of large quantities of
water when it rains
○​ Thickened leaves or stems which contain cells that store water

Xerophytes are adapted to live in extremely dry conditions such as deserts

Natural Selection
●​ In any environment, the individuals that have the best adaptive features are the ones
most likely to survive and reproduce
●​ This results in natural selection:
●​ Individuals in a species show a range of variation caused by differences in genes
 ●​ When organisms reproduce, they produce more offspring than the environment is
able to support
●​ This leads to competition for food and other resources which results in a ‘struggle for
survival’
●​ Individuals with characteristics most suited to the environment have a higher chance
of survival and more chances to reproduce
●​ Therefore the alleles resulting in these characteristics are passed to their offspring at
a higher rate than those with characteristics less suited to survival
●​ This means that in the next generation, there will be a greater number of individuals
with the better adapted variations in characteristics
●​ This theory of natural selection was put forward by Charles Darwin and became
known as ‘survival of the fittest’
An example of natural selection

Natural selection illustrated by snail shell colour

●​ Within the population of snails there is variation in shell colour
●​ Normal varieties of shell colours in this snail species is black or grey (as evidenced
by the first picture)
●​ Chance mutations lead to a small number of snails / one snail having a white shell
●​ This ‘small number’ is shown in the second diagram where there are less white
shelled snails than black or grey shelled snails
●​ The white shelled snail(s) survive longer
 ●​ This is the ‘survival of the fittest’, a term used to explain why some organisms
succeed in the competitive struggle for survival against other members of their
population
●​ The reason the white shelled snail(s) survive longer is because they are better
camouflaged
●​ This means that they are less likely to be seen by predators and eaten
●​ As they survive longer they get more opportunities to reproduce
●​ And so the allele for white shells is passed onto offspring more frequently than the
alleles for black or grey shells
●​ Over generations, this is repeated until the majority of snails in the population have
white shells

Another good example of natural selection is the evolution of the peppered moths

Examiner Tips and Tricks

There are hundreds of thousands of examples of natural selection and you cannot possibly
be familiar with all of them, however, they ALL follow the same sequence described above:
 ●​ Based on the idea that within a species there is always variation and chance
mutations, some individuals will develop a phenotype (characteristic) that gives them
a survival advantage and therefore will:
○​ live longer
○​ breed more
○​ and be more likely to pass their genes on
●​ Repeated over generations, the ‘mutated’ phenotype will become the norm
Remember, it is the concept you have to understand, not the specific example.
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Adaptation by Natural Selection: Extended

●​ If the environment does not change, selection does not change
●​ This will favour individuals with the same characteristics as their parents
●​ If the environment changes, or a chance mutation produces a new allele, selection
might now favour individuals with different characteristics or with the new allele
●​ So the individuals that survive and reproduce will have a different set of alleles that
they pass on to their offspring
●​ Over time, this will bring about a change in the characteristics of the species - it will
produce evolution
●​ Evolution is defined as the change in adaptive features of a population over time as a
result of natural selection
●​ Natural selection results in a process of adaptation, which means that, over
generations, those features that are better adapted to the environment become more
common
○​ This is how evolution occurs
●​ This means populations of organisms become better suited to their environment
●​ A good example of this is the development of antibiotic resistance by bacteria
Selective Breeding
●​ Selective breeding means to select individuals with desirable characteristics and
breed them together
●​ The process doesn’t stop there though because it’s likely that not all of the offspring
will show the characteristics you want so offspring that do show the desired
characteristics are selected and bred togetherw
 ●​ This process has to be repeated for many successive generations before you can
definitely say you have a ‘new breed’ which will reliably show those selected
characteristics in all offspring

Selective breeding in domesticated animals

●​ An example of selective breeding is dog breeders who select which dogs can mate
together to increase the likelihood of puppies displaying desirable characteristics eg.
coat colour
This has given rise to the many recognisable dog breeds of today, all the same species
(Canis familiaris) and all descended from one breed

Selective breeding in crop plants

●​ Plants are selectively bred by humans for the development of many characteristics,
including:
○​ disease resistance in food crops
○​ increased crop yield
○​ hardiness to weather conditions (e.g. drought tolerance)
○​ better tasting fruits
○​ large or unusual flowers
●​ An example of a plant that has been selectively bred in multiple ways is wild
brassica, which has given rise to cauliflower, cabbage, broccoli, Brussels sprouts,
kale and kohlrabi:
Selective breeding in crop plants
Artificial vs natural selection: Extended