Biodiversity and Adaptation Essay

Assignment: Plant Biodiversity and Adaptation

Post your assignment to the Submissions Area for grading by the instructor by the due date assigned. The minimum length for this assignment is 1,200 words. Be sure to check your Turnitin report for your post and to make corrections before the deadline of 11:59 pm Mountain Time of the due date to avoid lack of originality problems in your work.

Discuss how adaptations allowed plants to move from an aquatic environment to the variety of habitats they inhabit today. You may wish to start out discussing single celled algae and include the transition from prokaryotes to eukaryotes. At the beginning or end of the essay, it may be helpful to write about plants that you have observed (using correct scientific nomenclature), and consider their traits and habitat. Then explain why those traits are adaptive, and how they arose. Don’t forget the role of natural selection in adaptation.

Gene Therapy and Cloning

Cloning is a major topic of debate and is described in the textbook. Briefly describe the process of cloning in the lab incorporating facts from the textbook.

How is cloning involved in gene therapy?

Give a specific and detailed example of how gene therapy may be used to solve problems associated with genetic disorders. Discuss the benefits and possible hazards of gene therapy to human health.

What might be the benefits of cloning? What are potential dangers or threats associated with the widespread use of cloning? Discuss the ethics of cloning in its various proposed forms and uses. Discuss how cloning is related to GMOs.

Submission Details:

• Post your response to the Discussion Area by the due date assigned. Respond to at least two posts by the end of the week.