adaptation

Examples of adaptation in the following topics:

• Antigen-presenting Cells: B and T cells

  • B and T cells, parts of the adaptive immune response, contain receptors that can identify antigens derived from pathogens.
  • In fact, without information from the innate immune system, the adaptive response could not be mobilized.
  • The two types of lymphocytes of the adaptive immune response are B and T cells .
  • It is the specific pathogen recognition (via binding antigens) of B and T cells that allows the adaptive immune response to adapt.
  • Explain the role played by B and T cells in the adaptive immune system

• Natural Selection and Adaptive Evolution

  • Natural selection drives adaptive evolution by selecting for and increasing the occurrence of beneficial traits in a population.
  • This process is known as adaptive evolution.
  • In the end, natural selection cannot produce perfect organisms from scratch, it can only generate populations that are better adapted to survive and successfully reproduce in their environments through the aforementioned selections.
  • Through natural selection, a population of finches evolved into three separate species by adapting to several difference selection pressures.
  • Each of the three modern finches has a beak adapted to its life history and diet.

• Temperature and Water

  • Similarly, some bacteria have adapted to survive in extremely-hot temperatures found in places such as geysers.
  • Examples of adaptations used by terrestrial and aquatic species include the following:
  • One such adaptation is the excretion of dilute urine.
  • Marine iguanas have a special, salt-secretion adaption that allows them to minimize bodily water loss.
  • Describe species adaptations to temperature fluctuations and the availability of water

• Characteristics of the Animal Body

  • Every animal has a distinct body plan, adapted in response to environmental pressures, that limits its size and shape.
  • The arctic fox is an example of a complex animal that has adapted to its environment and illustrates the relationships between an animal's form and function .
  • An arctic fox is a complex animal, well adapted to its environment.

• Osmoregulators and Osmoconformers

  • Aquatic organisms with various salt tolerances adapt to their environments through osmoregulation and osmoconformation.
  • Persons lost at sea without any fresh water to drink are at risk of severe dehydration because the human body cannot adapt to drinking seawater, which is hypertonic (having higher osmotic pressure) in comparison to body fluids.
  • Compare the ability of stenohaline and euryhaline organisms to adapt to external fluctuations in salinity

• Plant Adaptations to Life on Land

  • Plants adapted to the dehydrating land environment through the development of new physical structures and reproductive mechanisms.
  • As organisms adapted to life on land, they had to contend with several challenges in the terrestrial environment.
  • The most successful adaptation solution was the development of new structures that gave plants the advantage when colonizing new and dry environments.
  • These adaptations are noticeably lacking in the closely-related green algae, which gives reason for the debate over their placement in the plant kingdom.
  • Discuss how lack of water in the terrestrial environment led to significant adaptations in plants

• Immunological Memory

  • Immunological memory allows the adaptive immune system to very rapidly clear infections that it has encountered before.
  • The adaptive immune system has a memory component that allows for a rapid and large response upon re-invasion of the same pathogen.
  • During the adaptive immune response to a pathogen that has not been encountered before, known as the primary immune response, plasma cells secreting antibodies and differentiated T cells increase, then plateau over time.
  • One reason why the adaptive immune response is delayed is that it takes time for naïve B and T cells with the appropriate antigen specificities to be identified, activated, and proliferate.

• Organismal Ecology and Population Ecology

  • Organismal and population ecology study the adaptations that allow organisms to live in a habitat and organisms' relationships to one another.
  • Researchers studying ecology at the organismal level are interested in the adaptations that enable individuals to live in specific habitats.
  • These adaptations can be morphological (pertaining to the study of form or structure), physiological, and behavioral.
  • This preferential adaptation means that the Karner blue butterfly is highly dependent on the presence of wild lupine plants for its continued survival .

• Physical and Chemical Barriers

  • The immune system comprises both innate and adaptive immune responses.
  • It is not induced by infection or vaccination, but is constantly available to reduce the workload for the adaptive immune response.
  • The adaptive immune response expands over time, storing information about past infections and mounting pathogen-specific defenses.
  • Both the innate and adaptive levels of the immune response involve secreted proteins, receptor-mediated signaling, and intricate cell-to-cell communication.
  • In the innate immune response, any pathogenic threat triggers a consistent sequence of events that can identify the type of pathogen and either clear the infection independently or mobilize a highly-specialized adaptive immune response.

• Processes and Patterns of Evolution

  • A heritable trait that aids the survival and reproduction of an organism in its present environment is called an adaptation.
  • The webbed feet of platypuses are an adaptation for swimming.
  • The snow leopards' thick fur is an adaptation for living in the cold.
  • The cheetahs' fast speed is an adaptation for catching prey.
  • For example, flight has evolved in both bats and insects; they both have structures we refer to as wings, which are adaptations to flight.