Description

Students often leave introductory biology courses with the idea that a single genotype directly yields a single phenotype. However, there are several evolutionary contexts that do not follow this paradigm. This lesson will engage students in understanding two such contexts: polygenic traits and gene x environment interactions. The lesson is designed to be a journal club, where students will read a paper that highlights a salient example of each mechanism, and then will reflect on discussion questions. Additionally, students will link concepts from these papers to broader societal issues beyond the classroom. This lesson is designed for undergraduate students in upper-level biology courses. The learning objectives are as follows:

• Define polygenic traits and genotype x environment interactions.
• Understand fundamental concepts linking genotype with phenotype and explain how genetic determinism does not always hold.
• Identify the scientific methodology used to link genotypes with phenotypes in primary literature.
• Evaluate primary literature to determine if the scientific methodology was applied in a scientifically valid and ethical framework.

This lesson focuses on the social implications of evolutionary biology concepts, and requires the instructor to be comfortable leading complicated, and often difficult, discussions on both biology and social issues. Please ensure you are well-equipped to teach this lesson. In addition to the instructor considerations below, please refer to resources on inclusive teaching from the Resources for Inclusive Evolution Education collective, or other resources at your institution or online. Be prepared with resources to support students who may demonstrate a wide range of reactions to this difficult subject material.

Note: Armita Manafzadeh, Dina Navon, and Yaamini R. Venkataraman contributed equally to the final product.

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