PhET-Simulations-for-Biology/C3/Natural-Selection/English-timed
Time | Narration |
00:01 | Welcome to this tutorial on Natural Selection, an interactive PhET simulation. |
00:08 | In this tutorial, we will demonstrate Natural Selection, an interactive PhET simulation. |
00:17 | Here, I am using: Ubuntu Linux Operating System version 16.04, |
00:26 | Java version 1.8.0, |
00:30 | Firefox Web Browser version 60.0.2. |
00:35 | Learners should be familiar with biology and ecology. |
00:41 | Using this simulation, we will look at a population of rabbits for effects:
Of mutations and selection factors, |
00:52 | Of environment,
On pedigree. |
00:55 | Let us begin. |
00:58 | Mutations-
Mutations are alterations in the nucleotide sequence of any genetic element. They are passed onto offspring. |
01:11 | Mutations may or may not change the observable traits or phenotype of an organism. |
01:18 | Inheritance of mutations can be dominant or recessive. |
01:25 | Use the given link to download the simulation. |
01:30 | I have already downloaded the Natural Selection simulation to my Downloads folder. |
01:37 | To open the jar file, open the terminal. At the terminal prompt, type: cd Downloads and press Enter. |
01:48 | Type: java space hyphen jar space natural-selection_en.jar.
Press Enter. |
02:03 | File opens in the browser in 'html' format. |
02:08 | This is the interface for the Natural Selection simulation. |
02:13 | Observe the rabbit hopping in the simulation panel.
Click the Pause button at the bottom of the interface. |
02:22 | Now we will explore the interface. |
02:25 | The interface has Simulation panel; |
02:29 | On the left side, Add Mutation,
Edit Genes, |
02:35 | in the middle- Graph,
Time until next generation progress bar, |
02:42 | Play/Pause button, Step button, |
02:46 | on the right side, Selection Factor,
Environment, Chart. |
02:54 | Clicking on the Reset All button takes you back to the starting point. |
02:59 | Let us keep the default settings: None for Selection Factor
Equator for Environment Population for Chart |
03:11 | Observe the Population versus Time graph. |
03:15 | It shows the number of rabbits along the y axis and time on the x axis. |
03:22 | Click Play button at the bottom of the interface. |
03:26 | In the graph, observe how the black line moves to the right. |
03:31 | Keep clicking on the Step button to move the simulation along faster. |
03:37 | If there are no rabbits left, you will see a Game Over pop-up box like this.
The text will read “All of the bunnies died!” |
03:48 | Click on the Play Again button to resume the simulation. |
03:53 | Click on Add a Friend to add another rabbit to the simulation. |
03:58 | Click on Pause at the bottom of the interface. |
04:03 | Generations of Progeny |
04:06 | Observe the labels on the right and roman numerals on the left of each row.
Generation P is shown in row I (one). |
04:17 | The F1 generation in row II (two) is made up of the progeny or children of generation P.
And so on until row V (five). |
04:30 | We will allow the population to grow until F3. This would be three steps after the mating pair. |
04:41 | Click Play at the bottom of the interface. |
04:45 | Note how the progress bar is full when a new generation begins. |
04:52 | The progress bar starts moving to the left as a generation starts growing. |
04:58 | Click Pause button. |
05:01 | Click the second button at the top left corner of the graph to zoom out. |
05:08 | You can now see the height of the next step. |
05:12 | The black line shows the total number of rabbits in the graph. |
05:17 | Under Selection Factor, click the Food radio button. |
05:22 | Under Add Mutation, click the Long Teeth button. |
05:27 | A text-box, “Mutation coming” appears at the bottom of the simulation panel. |
05:33 | Note the yellow triangle with the lightning inside. |
05:37 | This indicates a mutation. You can see a picture of long teeth in the text-box. |
05:45 | Under Edit Genes, the rows next to the Teeth label have become active. |
05:52 | The radio buttons can now be clicked. |
05:56 | For each row, two options appear under the Dominant and Recessive columns. |
06:03 | To the left of each row are the pictures of long and short teeth. |
06:09 | Default selections are dominant mutation for long teeth and recessive for short teeth. |
06:17 | Observe the progress bar and the graph after the mutation has been added. |
06:22 | Let us allow the population to grow for another three generations after the mutation.
Keep clicking on the Step button. |
06:33 | The interval between two narrow steps in the graph corresponds to a generation. |
06:41 | Click on the second Zoom Out button in the graph until you see the steps. |
06:47 | Observe how differently coloured lines appear in the graph after mutation and food selection. |
06:56 | Note that the timing of mutations and selection factors will affect population growth. |
07:03 | The legend below the graph gives the different colours and what they mean. |
07:09 | We introduced a dominant mutation for long teeth. |
07:14 | Let us look at the magenta line for long teeth, the olive line for short teeth. |
07:23 | Initially, the olive line is above the magenta line.
The number of short-toothed rabbits is higher than that of the long-toothed rabbits. |
07:36 | Later, the magenta line is above the olive line. |
07:41 | The number of long-toothed rabbits has increased relative to the short-toothed ones. |
07:49 | This means that long teeth help rabbits survive by eating the available food. |
07:57 | Fur Mutation. Set up conditions to study effects of a fur mutation on survival of rabbits. |
08:06 | Keep brown fur as the dominant mutation and white fur as the recessive mutation. |
08:13 | Choose wolves as the selection factor. |
08:17 | Allow the population to grow for another 3 generations after the mutation. |
08:25 | Observe how the wolves move in and out, killing the rabbits. |
08:31 | Brown rabbits begin to appear after the mutation was introduced. |
08:37 | Note that we are still looking at effects of the dominant long teeth mutation besides brown fur. |
08:46 | Compare numbers of rabbits having white and brown fur in the graph and simulation panel. |
08:55 | Initially, there are more white rabbits than brown rabbits. |
09:02 | Later, the number of brown rabbits has increased relative to white ones. |
09:10 | At the equator, with wolves killing the rabbits, brown fur is an advantage for survival. |
09:18 | This strategy to blend with the environment is called camouflage. |
09:24 | What can you say about the numbers of long and short-toothed rabbits? |
09:31 | Sometimes a mutation changes the phenotype of all rabbits. |
09:37 | If so, the graph will not compare the mutation versus the wild type (unmutated) phenotypes. |
09:45 | Here, there are more long-toothed rabbits than short-toothed ones. |
09:53 | Tail Mutation
Set up conditions to study effects of a tail mutation on survival of rabbits. |
10:02 | Keep long tail as the dominant mutation and short tail as the recessive mutation. |
10:09 | Choose wolves as the selection factor. |
10:13 | Allow the population to grow for another 3 generations after the mutation. |
10:20 | Keep clicking on the Step button to move the simulation along faster. |
10:28 | Click on the 2nd Zoom Out button. |
10:31 | Note the number of rabbits with brown fur, long teeth and short tails. |
10:38 | It is higher than that of rabbits with white fur, short teeth and long tails. |
10:49 | Brown fur and short tails help escape from wolves. |
10:55 | Long teeth help survival by making it easier to eat vegetation. |
11:01 | Under Chart, click Pedigree. |
11:04 | Note the text, “Click a Bunny” at the top. |
11:08 | Let us click on the rabbit at the left bottom corner of the simulation panel. |
11:16 | Observe how the selected rabbit is framed inside a blue rectangle. |
11:22 | The pedigree chart appears for the rabbit framed in the blue rectangle. |
11:28 | Click on the top right button in the Pedigree window. |
11:33 | The Pedigree window is separated and the Population chart appears behind it. |
11:41 | We can now resize the Pedigree window. |
11:46 | Note the color of the previous four generations of rabbits above the selected rabbit. |
11:54 | Red crosses on the rabbits indicate that they are dead. |
11:59 | The yellow triangle with the lightning symbol inside indicates a mutation. |
12:06 | It shows that that rabbit underwent a mutation so its genotype and phenotype changed. |
12:14 | Pedigree analysis allows study of inheritance of genes based on data about phenotypes. |
12:23 | Click repeatedly on the Step button.
Rabbits can be seen all over the continents on the planet Earth. |
12:33 | Observe the caption, “Bunnies have taken over the world!” |
12:38 | These are the long-term effects of the simulation under these conditions. |
12:44 | Do refer to Additional material provided with this tutorial. |
12:50 | Let us summarize. |
12:52 | In this tutorial, we have demonstrated how to use the Natural Selection PhET simulation. |
13:00 | Using this simulation, we looked at a population of rabbits for effects:
Of mutations and selection factors Of environment On pedigree |
13:13 | As an assignment, observe the rabbits: For effects of mutations and selection factors in Arctic environment |
13:23 | After switching mutations from dominant to recessive and vice versa.
For changes in pedigree under different conditions |
13:34 | The video at the following link summarizes the Spoken Tutorial project.
Please download and watch it |
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13:59 | This project is partially funded by Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya National Mission on Teachers and Teaching. |
14:08 | Spoken Tutorial Project is funded by NMEICT, MHRD, Government of India.
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14:21 | This is Vidhya Iyer from IIT Bombay, signing off.
Thank you for joining. |