Molecular Evolution
Midterm Quiz
Question 1 - Discovery of functional elements in 12 Drosophila genomes
The following figure shows three types of 'evolutionary signatures'
obtained by comparing many closely related genome sequences (12 flies in this case).
Discuss these three types of evolutionary signature.
Question 4 - The global circulation of seasonal influenza A (H3N2) viruses
Explain what the following figure is about and what it tells about the flu viruses circulating in the modern world.
Question 2 - Explaining Human Uniqueness
"It would be ironic if, overall, increased purifying selection of protein-coding regions on human brain genes
is a necessary consequence of the phenotypic adaptations that have led to our social-cultural flexibility,
which might be buffering other genomic changes."
Explain the irony.
Question 3 - Transposable elements
Transposable elements (TE) are believed to have played a key role in the evolution of eukaryotes.
Discuss the role of TEs in the evolution of eukaryotic transcription regulatory networks
paying particular attention to the origins of regulatory DNA sequence elements
and the proteins that bind to them.
