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This case study examines the evolution color vision in Old World and New World monkeys from multiple biological perspectives. This integrative approach employs both problem-based learning techniques and directed questions as students move through a series of modules that takes them from nucleotides through alternative alleles to protein function to ecology and phylogenetics. The modules (ecology, cell biology/protein function, genetics and phylogenetics) can to be used in any order as dictated by course objectives and structure. The case study is appropriate for a basic undergraduate biology course or for genetics, ecology and cell biology upper level courses. A key feature of the case study is weaving evolutionary thinking into the biology curriculum. The research phase of problem-based learning is supported by a series of slides and simulations that can be downloaded from the authors' site where they are stored, edited, and used according to instructors' needs.

Objectives:

• Compare the foraging abilities of di- and trichromatic monkeys as they connect to evolutionary theory (i.e., environment-dependent selective advantage).
• Describe the differences and similarities among the three types of receptor proteins responsible for color vision, as they connect to evolutionary theory (i.e., cellular processes resulting in a novel phenotype).
• Explain how differences in nucleotide sequences lead to differences in gene expression and cell function, as they connect to evolutionary theory (i.e., the connection between genotype and phenotype and the role of mutation in producing new phenotypes).
• Use geological and phylogenetic data to infer when the separation between Old World and New World monkeys happened.
• Explain that the study of evolution requires learning across the biological sciences curriculum and provide relevant examples.
• Engage in independent research.

• http://sciencecases.lib.buffalo.edu/cs/collection/detail.asp?case_id=729&id=729
• License terms

Researchers should cite this work as follows:

• Heidemann, M., White, P. J., Smith, J. (2018). The Evolution of Color Vision in Monkeys: From Nucleotides to Ecology. QUBES Educational Resources. doi:10.25334/Q49729

  BibTex | EndNote

1. Advanced
2. Audience Level
3. biology
4. case study
5. cell function
6. Color vision
7. cone cells
8. dichromatic
9. food gathering
10. gene duplication
11. genes
12. High School
13. introductory
14. meiosis
15. monkeys
16. nucleotides
17. opsins
18. photoreceptors
19. phylogenetics
20. primates
21. proteins
22. Resources @ NSF - NCCSTS
23. Resources @ QUBES - Teaching & Reference
24. sex-linked
25. spectral shift
26. Teaching material
27. trichromatic
28. Undergraduate
29. undergraduate biology education