Real Life Genetics >:D

Feline Questions
Question 1:� What assumptions about the inheritance of alleles must you make to use a test-cross to determine the genotype of an individual expressing the dominant phenotype?
You must assume that the offspring produced in the test-cross must have a genotype of LL or Ll.
Question 2:� How would you determine the genotype of an agouti cat?
You can determine the genotype of an agouti cat by seeing if it has the dominant allele of "A".
Question 3: Why do population geneticists prefer to work with codominant genes?
Geneticists prefer to work with codominant genes because the codominant genes contain both alleles to study.
Question 4: Develop a table describing the possible genotypes and their phenotypes that could result from a cross between a tortoiseshell and a black cat.� Assume both cats are homozygous BB.
The offspring that are male will have a genotype of BB and will be either orange or black. The offspring that are female will have a genotype of BB and will have a coat that will be either orange, black, or tortoiseshell.
Question 5:� What effect might a striped (vs. solid) coat have on the fitness of a wild cat?
Striped wild cats have an advantage over solid wild cats because striped felines are able to blend in with their environment, either to ambush prey or hide from predators.
Question 6:� If you mated two white cats, would you be confident of always obtaining white progeny?� Explain.�
No, because it is possible that one of the white cats had an ancestor that could be a different color, its just been hiding the allele because it was recessive. At any time, one of the offspring could be a different color.
Question 7:� What factors determine allele frequency?� Is a dominant allele always the most frequent allele at a locus?�
The factors that determine allele frequency are mutations, genetic drifts, and migrations. Dominance of alleles are not always the most frequent allele at a locus.
Question 8:� Manx cats have no tail and relatively long rear legs.� What is the genotype of a Manx cat?� Do you expect the frequency of Manx cats to increase over time?� Why or why not?
The genotype of a Manx cat will be Mm. Yes they will increase over time due to breeding with other cats. 
Mendel- Fudging- his- stuff- up Questions
Under this model, what is the chance of agreement between the observed and expected frequencies of smooth and wrinkled as close as that reported by Mendel, or closer?
The chance of a wrinkled is 1850 out of 7324 and the chance of a smooth is 5474 our of 7324.
What do you conclude on the basis of this one set of results about whether he fudged his data?
I think his data was fudged up. It can't be these results all the time. He needs to think about the ancestry of the plants and the alleles that the parents of the seeds had.
Blood Type Problem Set
1. Not Possible
2. A+, A-, O+, or O-
3. A+, A-, AB+, or AB-
4. A, AB, B, or O
5. AB or B
6. Unlikely


Yes, you can have a different blood type from your parents, because you can have parents with blood types of AB and B and yours could be O, since O blood is universal.

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Web Quest on Genetics

1.) The Human Genome Project is an international scientific research project. Their primary goal of determining the sequence of chemical base pairs which make up DNA. It's purpose prior to 2001 was to create a working draft of the genome, which was the nucleic acid sequence database. The project was completed in 2003, but today, scientists are still researching and filling in the gaps in the draft. The potential benefits to the project are more advance medicine that can treat different cancers.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_Genome_Project
2.) DNA is a great source of evidence in criminal and forensic cases, since it is almost impossible for somebody to have the same DNA as another person. Detectives look for saliva, fingerprints, hair strands, and even semen for DNA samples. It could be harmful if someone got their hands on your DNA information because they can basically steal your identity; they could rob banks and conduct murders and you'll be blames for them, since your DNA was at the crime scene.
http://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/life/genetic/dna-evidence.htm
3.) Color blindness is an inconvenient sex- linked trait. It is an X-linked trait, just like baldness and hemophilia. Take a prenatal test in-case you don't want a baby inheriting these traits.
  http://anthro.palomar.edu/biobasis/bio_4.htm
4.) The Human Genome Project has started research in the epigenome in humans. They are focusing on decoding the genome and the 20,000- 25,000 genes. They also want to determine the sequences of the some- what 3 billion chemical base pairs in DNA.
http://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/life/genetic/human-epigenome-project.htm

Osmosis Questions!

1. What is osmosis? Osmosis is the movement of water molecules from a higher concentration to a lower concentration through a semi permeable membrane.
2. What is diffusion? Diffusion is the movement of substances from a higher concentration to a lower concentration through a permeable membrane.
3. What is the difference between the two? The difference is that osmosis is more specifically water molecules, while diffusion is the general substance.
4. Is energy used in either process? No, energy is not needed.
5. What is a concentration gradient?  Give an example. A concentration gradient is when there is an uneven distribution between substances over a distance.
6. How do the terms solute and solvent fit in learning about osmosis and diffusion? Solutes and Solvents are the substances that are the results of osmosis and diffusion. The Solutes are the substances being dissolved while the Solvents are the substances that dissolve the Solutes. They are the two concentrations left after osmosis and diffusion occur.
7. Is water always a solvent?  Why or why not? Water is always solvent because it cannot be dissolved.

What I Learned From The Osmosis Websites!

Osmosis was pretty confusing at first, but now I think I know what it is. Osmosis is the movement of water molecules from a higher concentration to a lower concentration, through a semi permeable membrane. It's basically diffusion, but more specifically with water. I also learned about the Isotonics, the Hypertonics, and the Hypotonics. Hypertonics are more solute, Hypotonics are more solvent, and Isotonics are fixed. I learned about the concentration gradients, too! A concentration gradient is when there is an uneven distribution between substances across a distance. It takes energy to go against a concentration gradient but it doesn't take energy to flow with it. That's what I learned about osmosis in the websites!

What i Learned From Six Kingdoms Notes

The activity that we did with the six kingdoms was very interesting. I learned about the kingdom I researched and the other five kingdoms. I researched Protista. It's the most diverse kingdom of the six, ranging from parasites to algae. Did you know that Protista can produce sexually? They actually produce spores when the male and females join together. An example would be the Ulva, which reproduce sexually.

I learned some stuff on the other kingdoms too; though I do have some questions that need clearing. My notes say that Plantae are autotrophs, but what about Venus Fly Traps? Don't they capture flies and devour them? It's a question that's been bugging me for a bit.

What I Learned From The Super Duper Cell Websites!

I learned a lot from our activity on Thursday. There was this one fact that astonished me; my body is made up of 100,000,000,000,000 cells! That's more than America's debt! I also learned about Eukaryotic and Prokaryotic cells. I knew what they were, I just didn't learn their scientific name. There was a diagram on a bacteria, and I learned that there were weird organelles in it, like the flagellum.

I also learned things that fixed my head a little. I first thought that the vacuole stores wastes that the lysosomes carry, but now I know that the vacuole stores food and water for the cell. Why would the cell have to store waste; what was I thinking? I also didn't know that there was another organelle in the animal cell called the "cytoskeleton" It's like the skeleton of the cell and provides shape and support.

Those are a few examples of the vast knowledge that I absorbed out of this activity. I hope we get to do this again sometime.