Name Joshua Aun

Student number 500564789

Lab Section 162


Teaching Assistant Chris Bentley


Professor Andrew Laursen





Title: The Bottleneck Effect on a Population of Northern Elephant Seals (Mirounga
angustirostris) in Relation to the Hardy-Weinberg Principle

Submitted: February 13, 2014

For course: BLG 144






I understand that it is a violation of the Academic Code of Conduct to copy answers or text from
another student, either verbatim or in substance (i.e. to use another students answers but
rephrase in my own words). I also understand that it is a violation of the Academic Code of
Conduct to share my answers or text with another student in a way that facilitates copying of my
answers. Such violations could result in a charge of Academic Misconduct. In submitting this
assignment for a grade, I am declaring that the work presented is my own original work, other
than the data in Table 1 that was provided by my instructor.








Introduction:
The objective of this experiment is to see whether or not the population of northern
elephant seals (Mirounga angustirostris) being studied is evolving or not. At the beginning of the
study, the population contained 783 individuals, but due to a toxic algal bloom, the population
was reduced to 35 individuals. Over the span of 18 years, the population slowly recovered to 420
individuals. This population consistently returns to the same breeding ground every year and has
done so for the past 20 years that I have been studying them.
The sudden drop in population size is due to the bottleneck effect. The bottleneck effect
is a sudden reduction in population size due to environmental change or human actions
(Brookfield, 2001). This evolutionary process may affect allelic frequencies negatively or
positively, depending on what alleles are lost and what alleles remain in the gene pool.
The population of seals being studied was found to have a mutant allele which results in
an improperly folded protein and non-functional potassium channel that can cause kidney failure.
This mutant allele is a dominant allele. The possible outcomes of this bottleneck are that the
mutant allele would be lost forever, the mutant allele would remain within the population and
increase in frequency, or the allelic frequencies would remain the same. If the mutant allele were
to be lost, then the seals would be safe from genetic kidney failure, but if the allele remained
within the population, over time it could spread throughout many individuals and harm the
population.
Male seals compete with each other through a combination of threats, fighting, and
chasing, and then quickly establish a social hierarchy in which the most dominant males are at
the top (Gogan, 1977). The ability of a male seal to be selected by a female seal or seals depends
on his status within the social hierarchy (Gogan, 1977). Female seals tend to stay together in
tight groups (Gogan, 1977). This is an example of non-random mating because female seals
select male seals that have a higher status within the social hierarchy.
The Hardy-Weinberg principle tells us what the expected genotypic frequencies are
supposed to be in a population, given the following assumptions: that mating is random, all
genotypes have equal fitness, there is no immigration or emigration, there are no mutations,
generations do not overlap, the population is very large, and genders are evenly distributed
among the three genotypes (McMurran, 2010). The genotypic frequencies in a population can be
found using the Hardy-Weinberg equation: p
2
+2pq+q
2
=1, where p
2
is homozygous for the
dominant allele, 2pq is heterozygous, and q
2
is homozygous for the recessive allele. The sum of
the frequencies of the alleles of a given gene in a population always equals 1 (Mertens, 1992).
If the frequency of a gene in a population were to meet Hardy-Weinberg expectations, it
would mean that the population is not evolving, since the only way to meet those expectations is
to satisfy all those assumptions as stated above. A population in Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium
will have the same genotypic frequencies generation after generation. When a population
deviates from expected genotypic frequencies, that population must be evolving since allelic
frequencies are changing.













Results:


Table 1: Allele frequencies and predicted genotypic frequencies for northern elephant seals over
duration of the study
Frequency of wild-type gene (YEAR 1) = 0.9839
Frequency of mutant gene (YEAR 1) = 0.0161

Frequency of wild-type gene (YEAR 20) = 0.9880
Frequency of mutant gene (YEAR 20) = 0.0120

Expected Genotypic Frequencies
SS Ss ss
YEAR 1 0.0003 0.0317 0.9681
YEAR 20 0.0001 0.0237 0.9762


The results show that after the bottleneck, the frequency of the wild-type gene increased
and the frequency of the mutant gene decreased. The expected genotypic frequencies reflect this
as well, because the frequency of the homozygous recessive gene increased, while the
frequencies of the homozygous dominant and heterozygous genes both decreased. Although the
expected genotypic frequencies are now different than from 20 years ago, none of the differences
exceed more than 0.01. The frequency of the wild-type gene increased by 0.0041, while the
frequency of the mutant gene decreased by the same amount. For expected genotypic
frequencies, the homozygous recessive gene increased by 0.0081, the homozygous dominant
gene decreased by 0.0002, and the heterozygous gene decreased by 0.0080. The sum of these
frequencies is 0.0001 off from 1.000 due to rounding errors.




Discussion:
The results obtained from this experiment are important because they will determine
whether or not the population of northern elephant seals is evolving or not. If they are evolving,
it will determine whether or not they are evolving towards a population which will have high
mortality rates due to kidney failure, or a population in which a gene that codes for an
improperly folded protein and non-functional potassium channel becomes even rarer or ceases to
exist.
Since the genotypic frequencies now deviated from the genotypic frequencies 20 years
ago, the population is not in Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium. This would suggest the population is
evolving. Even though the change in genotypic frequency is significantly small, it has only been
20 years since the beginning of the study, which is considered to be a very short time for a
population to evolve. It is also most likely that the population is not in Hardy-Weinberg
equilibrium because random mating is not occurring. Adult males compete with each other
through threats and fights, and form a social hierarchy, and the degree to which a male is able to
be selected as a mate by a female is dependent on his status within the social hierarchy (Gogan,
1977).
As can be seen in Table 1, the frequency of the wild-type gene increased and the mutant
gene decreased proportionally. This might be explained by mate preference. If a male were to
exhibit signs of kidney failure, he would probably not be able to compete with other males in
obtaining a high status in the social hierarchy, and therefore would less likely be selected as a
mate by a female. In short, males with the mutant allele would be less preferred and the chances
of them producing offspring would be really low, and in many cases they would probably die
from kidney failure before they reached an age of sexual maturity. This might explain why the
frequency of the mutant gene decreased since 20 years ago.
If the population were to continue evolving in this way, then eventually the mutant gene
will be much reduced in frequency or even lost. Since the trait for a functional potassium channel
varies in a heritable manner, the wild-type gene will be naturally selected because it will most
likely result in a seal with higher fitness than a seal with the mutant gene, and the trait for a
functional potassium channel will be passed on to the next generation as an evolutionary
response (Grant and Grant, 1995).
The genotypic frequencies in the seal population today may have increased as a result of
the bottleneck. If the bottleneck had not killed some of the seals with the mutant allele, then the
frequency of the mutant alleles would have increased and then may have spread by chance
throughout the tiny population, therefore harming the entire population (Brookfield, 2001). But
due to the bottleneck, some of the seals with the mutant allele were killed, reducing the
frequency of the mutant allele within the population.
The results suggest that the evolutionary process of bottlenecking played a significant
role in shaping the seal population and the prevalence of kidney disease in the population.
Although natural selection favored the wild-type gene and eventually will have decreased the
frequency of the mutant gene by itself after many generations, the bottleneck event sped up the
process significantly. If there were to be another bottleneck, it may not kill any seals with the
mutant allele and as a result it will increase in frequency within the population. It all depends on
who survives.


References:

Brookfield, John F.Y. (2001) Population Bottlenecks. Current Biology, Vol. 11, No. 24, pp.
R1000

Gogan, Peter J.P. (1977) A Review of the Population Ecology of the Northern Elephant Seal
(Mirounga angustirostris). U.S. Dept. of Commerce, National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration, National Marine Fisheries Service, Northwest and Alaska Fisheries Center. 6 pp.

Grant, Peter R., and Grant, B. Rosemary (1995) Predicting Microevolutionary Responses to
Directional Selection on Heritable Variation. Evolution, Vol. 49, No. 2, pp. 241-251

McMurran, Shawnee L. (2010) The Hardy-Weinberg Principle. Primus: Problems, Resources,
and Issues in Mathematics Undergraduate Studies, Vol. 20, No. 6, pp. 529-549

Mertens, Thomas R. (1992) Introducing Students to Population Genetics & the Hardy-Weinberg
Principle. The American Biology Teacher, Vol. 54, No. 2, pp. 103-107