IB Biology HL 4.1.4 Environmental Change and Selection
Practise evaluating HL environmental-selection evidence, using correlation data to judge how freezing exposure affects inherited traits.
- Syllabus
- First assessment 2025
- Course
- Biology HL
- Level
- HL
Practise evaluating HL environmental-selection evidence, using correlation data to judge how freezing exposure affects inherited traits.
PanI is a gene in cod fish that codes for an integral membrane protein called pantophysin. Two alleles of the gene, PanIA and PanIB, code for versions of pantophysin, that differ by four amino acids in one region of the protein. Samples of cod fish were collected from 23 locations in the north Atlantic and were tested to find the proportions of PanI A and PanI B alleles in each population. The results are shown in pie charts, numbered 1-23, on the map below. The proportions of alleles in a population are called the allele frequencies. The frequency of an allele can vary from 0.0 to 1.0 . The light grey sectors of the pie charts show the allele frequency of PanI A and the black sectors show the allele frequency of PanI B.

The sites close to Iceland, at a latitude of 60−65∘, had very varied allele frequencies, with both PanI A and PanI B occurring. The water at these sample sites was highly stratified, with much warmer water at the surface and much colder water below. Suggest reasons for both PanIA and PanIB alleles occurring at these sites.
higher frequency of PanIA/PanIIAPanIIA(cod) in warm (surface) water; higher frequency of PanIB/PanIBPanIB (cod) in colder (deeper) water; interbreeding results in PanIAPanIBcod/ heterozygous cod;