The Simpson Pedigree
Many years ago, Abe Simpson married the dashing blue haired Penelope Olson. The two fell madly in love and had two sons – Herb and Homer. Not much is known about Herb. It is unknown if he ever married or if the “Four finger trait” was passed on but early family photos show Herb appeared normal. When Homer was in high school he met Marge, a dashing blue-haired beauty. Homer noticed the difference between them, but Marge didn’t seem to care. As the saying goes, the rest was history. Homer and Marge fell for each and married shortly after high school.
Marge’s family was not without the trait but none of her sisters had it and neither did Marge. Marge’s mom, Jackie married Clancy Burns, the wealthy owner of the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant. Their first born was Marge but they had two more girls Patty and Selma. Patty eventually ended up marrying Troy McClure, the actor, much to the surprise and disappointment of her sister/best friend/only friend Selma. In response Selma married the Comic Book Guy named Guy. They had two children; a girl named Patrice and a son named Jub-Jub (after Selma’s favorite pet lizard).
Back to Marge and Homer – Marge and Homer’s first child, Bartholomew was quite a terror. Fortunately, their second child, Lisa was nothing like Bart. Six years later, Maggie was born. Bart reunited with one of his first loves, Reverend Lovejoy’s daughter Grace, and they got married at Krusty Burger in Springfield. Lisa grew up too and eventually married her longtime friend, Ralph Wiggum. Their only daughter, Langdon, was named after Lisa’s favorite teacher. Maggie married Todd Flanders (diddly - doodly) and their only son was named Noah (a name chose by Ned Flanders).
You and your team of geneticists were hired by the Simpson family to trace the “four finger disease” throughout the family. Lisa and her sister Maggie were five fingered but they both had children who were four fingered. Lisa’s brother and cousin Patrice are expecting to have children soon. You have been able to determine that it is an Autosomal Recessive disorder and you collected the data given below. Your job is to create a pedigree and determine the genotypes of each family member. You will present this pedigree to Lisa so she can then help her family predict the possibility of having more four fingered children.
Family Trait Data: The following have 4 fingers:
Langdon, Noah, Homer, Penelope, Mr. Burns, Troy, Bart and the Comic Book Guy
Instructions and Recommendations
1. Apply 3+ AVID Reading Strategies to the passage above.
2. Assign team responsibilities: Every team member needs to complete a part of the team objectives. Consider each other’s strengths when assigning the following tasks.
Team Members ______Date ______
______Period ______
______Team # ______
Preliminary Survey:
1. What is the Trait or DISORDER? ______
2. What is the probably genetic inheritance pattern? Identify one form below and the likely genotype of that condition.
Autosomal Dominant ______Autosomal Recessive ______Sex-linked Dominant ______Sex-linked Recessive ______
3. How many people are in the pedigree? ______
4. How many people have the disorder? ______
Pedigree Analysis and Question:
1. What is the probability (in percent) that Patty and Troy will have a child with four fingers?
2. If Patrice and JubJub have children, what is the probability (in percent) they will have with four fingers?
3. Is there anyone the team was unable to determine a single genotype for and why?
If yes identify who ______number ______
______
4. Compare your teams Pedigree with one other teams Pedigrees Team # ______to respond to the following prompts;
THREE – TWO – ONE (3-2-1) Write Up
Compare or contrast three things about the two Pedigrees;
1. ______2. ______3. ______
Identify two things the team discovered or learned collaborating to accomplish the goals.
1. ______2. ______
Write one question your team has after comparing and contrasting your Pedigree with another.
1. ______
Adapted from the following site: http://static.howstuffworks.com/gif/simpsons-31.jpg