question_answer

(i)   Define fossils. Give any two ways in which the study of fossils support biological evolution of an organism

(ii)  What is the study of fossils called? Write few points as to how the fossils throw light on past life.

OR

How is Human Genome Project HGP) advantageous for the mankind? Which objectives were associated with it?

 

Answer:

(i) Fossils are the remains or impressions ofpre-historic organisms preserved in sedimentary rocks or other media.

Fossils support biological evolution in various ways given under.

(a) The habitat and behaviour of extinct organisms can be inferred from well preserved fossils.

(b) The study of Archaeopteryx reveals that birds have evolved from reptiles depiciting fossils provide evidence for evolution.

(c) Phylogeny can be constructed from fossils.

(ii) The study of fossils is called Palaeontology.

The fossils throw light on part of life in these ways

(a) Age of the organisms can be determined by fossils.

(b) Fossils also throw light on morphology and anatomy of past life.

(c) Some fossils provide evidence of connecting link and establishes phylogenetic links.

(d) Distribution of fossils gives information about habitat of an organism.

OR

Advantages of HGP

It is a revolutionary way to diagnose, treat and someday prevent the thousands of disorders tha affect human beings. Besides these, learning about non-human organisms DNA sequences can lead to an understanding of their natural capabilities that can be applied toward solving challenges in healthcare, agriculture, energy production, environmental remediation.

Objectives of HGP are

HGP established whole genome of human with the help of genetic engineering techniques, cloning techniques and bioinformatics.

It was an ambitious international project which began in 1990. The goal of projects are:

(a) To develop ways of mapping the human genome at increasing fine level of expression.

(b) To store this information in database and develop tools for data analysis.

- Identification of 20,000 - 25,000 genes in human DNA.

- Determination of sequences of 3 billion chemical base pairs that make up human DNA.

- Sequence more than 1200 genes that are responsible for common cardiovascular ailments, endocrine disease like diabetes, neurological disorder like Alzheimer, deadly coma and many more.

- HGP holds a key to design drugs, genetically modified diets and finding our genetic identity.