Question

1. Describe the mouse “survival” experiment conducted by Hoesktra and colleagues: what was it testing, how was it performed, what were the results, and what were the limitations to this experiment (i.e. what could the researchers not do and/or what research questions remained to be explored with further experiments)?

Answer 1

Hoekstra with his team traveled to a location name Nebraska and custom built a number of different enclosures, an important natural habitat with soil that was different from the surrounding area. In one year study in which hundreds of mouse were released into that enclosure. They track how light and dark-colored mouse survived in light and dark-colored habitats. She wants to determine if the average color of mice change over time.

Her aim was to experiment upon vertebrate evolution. This experiment involves mutation and shows how that mutation leads to a change in phenotype and how that change leads to survival differences.

The results - Light-colored mouse survive better in light-colored habitats and dark-colored mice in dark habitats. But the experiment also allowed scientist to know a mutation, related to survival, one that affects pigmentation, and to understand how that produced a novel coat color.

Limitation- Further doubt remains as whether there were other genetic differences, in pigment genes or other genes, that help mice survive in different habitats.