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Topic
Resource Type
Description
This activity has been archived while we produce a more up-to-date version of this activity and the accompanying film. We are hoping the new activity and film will be available by the end of 2021.
This activity explores the connection between malaria and sickle cell anemia — one of the best-understood examples of natural selection in humans — as discussed in the short film The Making of the Fittest: Natural Selection in Humans.
This film describes the work of Tony Allison, the first researcher to find a connection between the infectious parasitic disease malaria and the genetic disease sickle cell anemia. Allison’s discovery is among the first and best-understood examples of natural selection in which the selective force, the adaptive mutation, and the critical molecules were all identified — and all in humans.
The “Student Handout” probes students’ understanding of the key concepts addressed in the film. The “Educator Materials” document provides suggested pause points in the film with questions for students, background information, and detailed discussion points; a list of related resources and references; and an answer key for the “Student Handout.”
The “Resource Google Folder” link directs to a Google Drive folder of resource documents in the Google Docs format. Not all downloadable documents for the resource may be available in this format. The Google Drive folder is set as “View Only”; to save a copy of a document in this folder to your Google Drive, open that document, then select File → “Make a copy.” These documents can be copied, modified, and distributed online following the Terms of Use listed in the “Details” section below, including crediting BioInteractive.
Student Learning Targets
- Recognize the link between genotype and phenotype.
- Describe how a mutation can have either beneficial or deleterious effects, depending on the environment in which an organism lives.
Estimated Time
Key Terms
adaptation, Africa, allele, balancing selection, hemoglobin, heterozygote advantage, malaria, mosquito, mutation, sickle cell
Primary Literature
Allison, Anthony C. “Protection Afforded by Sickle-Cell Trait against Subtertian Malarial Infection.” British Medical Journal 1, 4857 (February 6, 1954): 290–294. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.1.4857.290.
Terms of Use
Please see the Terms of Use for information on how this resource can be used.
Version History
NGSS (2013)
HS-LS1-1, HS-LS2-1, HS-LS2-2, HS-LS3-1, HS-LS3-3, HS-LS4-2, HS-LS4-3; SEP6
AP Biology (2019)
EVO-1.E, EVO-1.K, EVO-I.O, IST-4.A, IST-4.B; SP1, SP4
IB Biology (2016)
4.1, 4.3, 5.4, D.2
Common Core (2010)
ELA.WHST.9-12.1
MP2
Vision and Change (2009)
CC1, CC2; DP1