Q43 - The Godfrey-Smith Darwinian Space

Theoretical 2 Real exam question - full text reproduced under IBO's CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license

Peter Godfrey-Smith (2009) describes a parameter space in which a population can evolve using three parameters: H: Fidelity of heredity S: Dependence of reproductive differences on genetic differences C: Continuity (when C is maximum, adding beneficial mutations to a genome results in the proportional betterment of the genotype. When C is zero, the effect of each mutation is entirely dependent on all the other loci) We can imagine this space as cube (described by Peter Godfrey-Smith as A Darwinian space), as seen in the figure.

Figure 1. Figure 1.

Using the information and data, determine which of the statements are true or which are false.

A. Accumulation of excessive mutations can result in the extinction of a population. (0,1,1) in the Darwinian space describes this situation.

B. In the absence of selection, a population of organisms resides at (1,0,0).

C. If your attempts at optimizing a bacteria species to consume glucose almost always results in sub-optimized populations, you are exploring the space close to (1,0,1).

D. A somatic cell in the human body can reside at (0,1,1) (Here, heredity is defined for the human and not the cell.)

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Question reproduced from IBO 2018, Theoretical Paper 2, licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 - attributed to the International Biology Olympiad. Open the full exam PDF · Community solutions (unofficial)