Mendelian Genetics

This section will deal with the study of inheritance, and the work of Gregor Mendel, who first understood how characteristics are passed on from one generation to the next.

A) Web site name: Mendel’s Genetics

Web URL: http://anthro.palomar.edu/mendel/mendel_1.htm

1) Which invention in the 1890s helped scientists to understand sexual reproduction? ______

2) When did Gregor Mendel publish his results? ______

3) Explain the 19th century “blending theory” in your own words: ______

4) What is the name of the male sex structure in flowers? ______

5) Mendel’s “units” or “factors” of inheritance are now called: ______

6) What is meant by “homozygous”? ______

7) Explain Mendel’s “principle of segregation”: ______

8) When does the segregation of alleles occur? ______

9) Which principle explains why inheriting a particular eye color has no effect on the likelihood of having 6 fingers on each hand ? ______

B) Web site name: Mendel Web

Web URL: http://www.mendelweb.org/MWpeaslee.html

Read “In the Footsteps of Mendel”

10) Why did Mendel join a monastery? ______

11) Why are begonias now planted in Mendel’s garden and not peas? ______

12) According to Pasteur “Chance favors ______”

13) What subject, apart from natural history, did Mendel teach at the Technical College (Brno Modern School) ? ______

14) Mendel donated money to his birthplace. What was the money for? ______

C) Web site name: Arizona State University

Web URL: http://askabiologist.asu.edu/punnett-squares

Read “Solving a genetic mystery”

15) What was Reginald Punnett’s profession? ______

16) What are “alleles”? ______

17) What does “phenotype” refer to?______

18) In the first example that is shown, which allele does Capital “A” represent? ______

19) Does the order of the letters in a Punnett square make a difference? ______20) What does “heterozygous” mean? ______

21) Explain why the yellow pea phenotype is called dominant: ______

22) In the second generation, why was it strange that some of the offspring had green seeds? ______

D) Web site name: Science Daily

Web URL: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/06/140601150924.htm

23) Apart from humans, what other animal does David Kingsley study? ______

24) What is the name of the protein that affects hair color? ______

25) What happens when this genetic change is introduced into laboratory mice? ______

26) On which human chromosome does this single nucleotide change take place? ______

27) What does the KITLG gene alter by about 20 percent? ______

28) Give examples of how the stickleback adapts to changes in its environment: ______

29) Which human population is particularly associated with blond hair? ______30) Why did Kingsley conclude that the change that causes blond hair is only skin deep? ______

E) Web site name: Science Nordic

Web URL: http://sciencenordic.com/edible-vaccines-can-be-grown-everywhere

One idea to improve vaccines is to take human genes, and add them to the DNA of plants and animals so that these plant cells produce human proteins.

Read “Edible vaccines can be grown everywhere”

31) What is the problem with current vaccines, particularly in poor countries? ______

32) How does a vaccine work? ______

33) How are vaccines traditionally produced? ______

34) What happens after scientists splice gene sequences into the genome of a plant? ______

35) Which main food plants are scientists working on to make edible vaccines? ______

36) What are the five main diseases that researchers are trying to develop edible vaccines against? ______

F) Web site name: IFL Science

Web URL: http://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/pig-heart- transplants-humans-could-be-their-way

Read “Pig heart transplants for humans could be on their way”

37) What is the biggest problem with transplants using animal organs? ______

38) Which genes in the pigs were removed (or knocked out)? ______

39) How long have the hearts survived in the baboons? ______

40) What problem may be solved by using animal parts? ______

41) What potential problems can you see with this technique of transplanting organs from other species into humans? ______

42) If you needed a heart transplant, would you prefer to stay on a mechanical assist device until a human heart was available, or would you accept a pig heart? Explain your answer. ______