Genetics

627 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Explain the important roles of genetics in our society

Genetics
I have always been interested in science, especially of the human body and how it works. Then we had a lab where we went over a little about genetics. I couldn’t help but to be curious about it. I had never given too much thought about it before, besides it having to do with the human body, and I think that is because I never really knew what it was or the different areas involved in genetics.
Genetics is about genes and heredity, which is the passing of traits from parent to offspring. The founder of modern genetics was an Austrian monk, Gregor Mendel. He planted peas at the monastery, as they develop quickly, produce abundant offspring, and are easy to grow. It is also easy to control which plant mates with which. (Biology, the Essentials, pg. 173) Mendel was trying to figure out why some traits disappear, only to reappear in a later generation. He noticed that, after cross-breeding some peas, that some traits were hidden by other traits. He called the trait that was masking the other dominant, and the one being masked recessive. (Biology, the Essentials, pg. 174)
Today, what Mendel called dominant or recessive traits, biologist reserve for alleles (Biology, the Essentials, pg. 174). An allele is a different form of genes. The unit of heredity on a chromosome is known as a gene. Dominant alleles are symbolized with a capital letter and need only one copy to be present for an individual to have the trait. On the other hand, a recessive allele is symbolized by a lower case letter and two copies need to be present for an individual to have the trait. (Lab 7 hand out paper)
My interest in genetics was further peaked when I started watching a show called Medical Mystery Diagnosis. I watched an episode where this couple had...

... middle of paper ...

... an individual can have two of the three alleles. The A and B alleles are dominant, with the A allele code for the A protein on the red blood cells and the B allele code for the B protein on the red blood cells. The O allele is recessive and is the absence of the A or B protein.
There is so much to genetics that I have never realized. I could never learn everything about genetics, as there are new things being discovered every day. I can’t wait to see what else I can learn about genetics, and how it affects individuals.

Resource Page
Cerebrotendinous Xanthomatosis: A Treatable Lipid Storage Disease. Pubmed. 7 September 2009. Web. 25 April 2014. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19696711
Hoefnagles, M. (2013). Biology, the Essentials. 1221 Avenue of the Americas, New York: The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
Lab 7. Genetics. Hand out. 2014. Murray State College.

Show More
Related

  • Effect of Fertilizer on the Wisconsin Fast Plants

    2764 Words  | 6 Pages

    Miller, K. R., & Levine, J. S. (2010). Miller & Levine biology. Boston, Mass: Pearson

    Read More

  • Race for the Double Helix: An Analysis

    2257 Words  | 5 Pages

    ...hich inherited traits, such as those for genetic disease, can be tracked over generations. Throughout out the course of human development, scientists will continue to find new new ways to help the human race through the discovery of the human gene inside of each of us, its uses, as well as complications, that can help the survival of our species.

    Read More

  • Drosophila Ausomal and Sex-Linked Cross

    1383 Words  | 3 Pages

    Genetics has given us important results with regards to knowing why certain organisms and their expressions are the way they are and how some expressions are suppressed due to those particular expressions being recessive. The reason is because genetics is the study of genes and the effects of it to organisms.

    Read More

  • Osmosis Diffusion Investigation Lab Report

    1986 Words  | 4 Pages

    2)Campbell, Neil A., and Jane B. Reece. Biology. San Francisco, CA: Benjamin Cummings, 2008. Print.

    Read More

  • California Condor

    728 Words  | 2 Pages

    Miller, K. R., & Levine, J. S. (2010). Miller & Levine biology. Boston, Mass.: Pearson.

    Read More

  • Examining the Crosses Between Drosophila Fruit Flies

    613 Words  | 2 Pages

    The major topic of this experiment was to examine two different crosses between Drosophila fruit flies and to determine how many flies of each phenotype were produced. Phenotype refers to an individual’s appearance, where as genotype refers to an individual’s genes. The basic law of genetics that was examined in this lab was formulated by a man often times called the “father of genetics,” Gregor Mendel. He determined that individuals have two alternate forms of a gene, referred to as two alleles. An individual can me homozygous dominant (two dominant alleles, AA), homozygous recessive, (two recessive alleles, aa), or heterozygous (one dominant and one recessive allele, Aa). There were tow particular crosses that took place in this experiment. The first cross-performed was Ebony Bodies versus Vestigle Wings, where Long wings are dominant over short wings and normal bodies are dominant over black bodies. The other cross that was performed was White versus Wild where red eyes in fruit flies are dominant over white eyes.

    Read More

  • Case Study Of Mendel's Laws

    1568 Words  | 4 Pages

    In the 19th century Gregor Mendel accomplished pioneered the first laws of genetics after crossing peas. He conducted an experiment with pea plants. He would use a paintbrush to transfer the genetic coding from one pea plant to another, so he could know exactly who the parents were. With the end of this experiment Mendel came up with two laws; Mendel 's law of segregation, and Mendel 's law of independent assortment. Mendel crossed over purple pea flowers with white pea flowers, which gave him purple pea flowers for the first generation also called F1. Since the offspring were all purple flowers Mendel understood that the purple gene was the dominant gene.  Mendel decided to cross the F1 generation with themselves. Which resulted in three purple pea flowers and one white pea flower. By using basic Punnett square, and identify the genotype as PP and the phenotype as pp.  This gave Mendel the following ratio of 3:1, three purple pea flowers and one

    Read More

  • The Green Peas Recessive And The Pea Plant Experiment

    1086 Words  | 3 Pages

    Gregor Mendel was born into a German family, as a young man Mendel worked as a gardener and studied beekeeping. In his later life Mendel gained his fame as the founder of the modern science of genetics. The research that was his claim to fame was his pea plant experiment. Mendel looked at seven different characteristics of the pea plants. For example with seed colors when he bred a yellow pea and green pea together their offspring plant was always yellow. Though, in the next generation of plants, the green peas reemerged at a 1:3 ratio. To explain what he had discovered, Mendel put together the terms “recessive” and “dominant” in reference to specific traits. Such as, in the previous example the green peas were recessive and the yellow peas

    Read More

  • The Monoamine Oxidase A Gene

    1013 Words  | 3 Pages

    [7] Klug, W., Cummings, M., Spencer, C., Palladino M. (2012) Concepts of Genetics: Tenth Edition. Pearson's Education, Inc.

    Read More

  • Mendel's Contributions to Genetics and Inheritance

    1059 Words  | 3 Pages

    Biologist, Gregor Johann Mendel, discovered how traits passed from one generation to the next. Mendel studied and used pea plants to discover the principles that rule heredity. He found that each parent, father, and mother pass down traits to their offspring, who inherit different combinations of their recessive or dominant alleles-terms introduced by Mendel during the 19th century. Mendel introduced important principles teaching us that recessive traits will only be shown in the phenotype if both alleles are recessive. Mendel’s laws of inheritance include the Law of segregation and the Law of independent assortment.

    Read More

  • Hemophilia

    2330 Words  | 5 Pages

    If there is not a normal gene present to offset the defective, recessive gene, the

    Read More

  • Genetic Testing

    641 Words  | 2 Pages

    Fulda, K. G., and K. Lykens. "Abstract." National Center for Biotechnology Information. U.S. National Library of Medicine, 25 Aug. 0005. Web. 18 Mar. 2014. .

    Read More

  • Penguin Evolution

    1736 Words  | 4 Pages

    middle of paper ... ...     World Book Inc, 2000. Davis, Lloyd S. and John T Darby. Penguin Biology. San Diego: Academic Press,      Inc., 1990.

    Read More

  • Genetic Determinism

    2847 Words  | 6 Pages

    As a mother, I am shocked and dismayed by the general acceptance of the myth of genetic determinism. One's environment, including people one interacts with, has an undeniable influence on how one develops. Nonetheless, many scientists disregard the impact of environment on one's intelligence. I do not deny that one's biology is a crucial part of one's identity. Inheritance of physical traits is obvious. Children often look "just like" their father or mother, or another relative. One's genes determine eye and hair color, height and body build. I believe, however, that what makes us human is not something that can be found in...

    Read More

  • Influence Of Child Development

    1505 Words  | 4 Pages

    Genetics is the passing of characteristics from parents to offspring through genes. Genes are information

    Read More

More about Genetics

Open Document