#4.7.1
Genetic diversity within, or between species, can be made by comparing:
- the frequency of measurable or observable characteristics
- the base sequence of DNA
- the base sequence of mRNA
- the amino acid sequence of the proteins encoded by DNA and mRNA.
#4.7.2
Students should be able to:
- interpret data relating to similarities and differences in the base sequences of DNA and in the amino acid sequences of proteins to suggest relationships between different organisms within a species and between species
- appreciate that gene technology has caused a change in the methods of investigating genetic diversity; inferring DNA differences from measurable or observable characteristics has been replaced by direct investigation of DNA sequences.
Knowledge of gene technologies will not be tested.
#4.7.3
Quantitative investigations of variation within a species involve:
- collecting data from random samples
- calculating a mean value of the collected data and the standard deviation of that mean
- interpreting mean values and their standard deviations.
Students will not be required to calculate standard deviations in written papers.