ISB 202 Applications of Environment and Organismal Biology Assignment- Michigan State University
Overview
For this assessment, students will be creating a phylogenetic tree of the candidate species and closely related species. This will be part of an investigation to determine if there is a possible surrogate species.
What is a Surrogate Species?
To bring a species "back" from extinction an embryo carrying the genetic information of the extinct species needs to be implanted into a mother so that it can develop. For some species, the mother may also provide parental support for the offspring. This mother is referred to as the "surrogate." Surrogacy typically takes place in a controlled environment. Your candidate species is now extinct. Is there an appropriate surrogate for that species? If so, which species is it and why? The first step in answering this question is to determine which species are closely related to the candidate species. Therefore, for this assessment, students will create a phylogenetic tree.
Part A: Finding Species
I. Record your de-extinction candidate species in the worksheet.
II. Go to the IUCN Redlist site for your species. Scroll down to the section titled "Taxonomy."Record the taxonomic information in the worksheet.
III. The taxonomic rank of Genus is the most exclusive of these ranks. That means species within the same genus are very closely related. The first search you should make to find a surrogate is to search the same genus within the IUCN list. Do this now.
i. If you find one or more additional species in your search, then select the first one on the list for your surrogate.
ii. Click on this species; is any information available on the IUCN site?
iii. If so, then you've found one potential surrogate.
iv. If not, go back to the list and click on the next species in the list.
v. Repeat this until you have five species with some information.
vi. If you exhaust the "genus" species list, then skip down to step #4.
vii. Record the common name and scientific name of thespecies in the worksheet. Include the five that have some information. Note that scientific names are always italicized.
viii. Skip down to section "Part 2: Determining Relatedness" if you have five species.
IV. Now, if you do this original Genus search and no other species are found (or you do find other species, but no information is available), then go to the next most exclusive taxonomic rank, which is Family. Species within the same family are closely related but not as close as those species within the same genus. However, a species from the same family will do just fine. Do this now.
i. As above, select the first species on the list and determine if there is any information.
ii. Repeat this until you have five species with some information (or go to the next taxonomic ranking, which is order).
iii. Record the common name and scientific name of the species in the worksheet. Note that scientific names are always italicized.
Part B: Determining Relatedness
I. The first part of determining how closely related the species are is considering the taxonomy, which you discovered in Part 1. For instance, if some of the species are in the same genus while others are in the same family, then those in the same genus are more closely related to each other than those in a different genus. If you chose more than one outside the candidate's genus, then check to see if the genus of those species is the same or different. If they have the same genus, then they are more closely related to each other than the candidate species. If it is different then their relatedness cannot be determined just by the genus.
II. The next step is to identify the species on OneZoom, which is an interactive phylogenetic tree that you may have used for the museum activity.
i. Once on the website, click on the "Explore" tab and select the appropriate taxonomic group or "all complex life."
ii. Then either explore the tree to find your species or type the family or genus name in the search textbox in the upper-right corner of the webpage.
iii. If your species are not listed, then make a prediction of their relatedness based on similar species that you find on One Zoom.
III. On the worksheet, 1) describe the predicted relatedness of the six species in words (like the descriptions that were provided during the in-class portion of the museum activity) and 2) describe the process that you used to determine their relatedness. There are six species total (the five closely related species and the candidate species). If they are all the same genus and not on One Zoom, then it is okay to just use shared derived characteristics to predict their relatedness, like the museum activity.
Part C: Identifying Characteristics
I. Create a rough sketch of the phylogenetic tree of the six species- do not include it in the worksheet at this point.
II. Predict four shared derived characteristics of different clades. Use information from the IUCN Red List or other sources to determine this. Consider physical and behavioral characteristics, if available. Recall that habitat is not a characteristic, but physical characteristics suitable for types of habitats may be shared derived characteristics.
III. Create a final version of the phylogenetic tree. Include the six species and the four characteristics. Feel free to either hand-draw it neatly and take a photograph or create it using a program, such as Microsoft PowerPoint and then saving the slide as an image. Paste the image in the worksheet.
Part D: Surrogate Species
After creating the phylogenetic tree, reflect on which species is the most suitable surrogate species and to what extent that species is a suitable surrogate. Consider evolutionary relatedness, shared derived characteristics, and IUCN conservation status (i.e., endangered, least concern, etc.). Type a reflective paragraph in the worksheet that provides your conclusion (which species and how suitable of a surrogate it would be) and evidence supporting your conclusion.
Format your assignment according to the following formatting requirements:
i) The answer should be typed, using Times New Roman font (size 12), double spaced, with one-inch margins on all sides.
ii) The response also includes a cover page containing the title of the assignment, the student's name, the course title, and the date. The cover page is not included in the required page length.
iii) Also include a reference page. The Citations and references must follow APA format. The reference page is not included in the required page length.
Attachment:- Worksheet.rar