Download Basic Genetics

Basic Genetics
http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/basics/
WHAT ARE TRAITS?
Explore traits, the characteristics that make us unique.
http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/basics/traits
Identical twins: same DNA, different environment
1. Even with the same DNA, what characteristic differences can be see between the
identical twins?
2. What diseases can appear in one twin but not the other?
3. Why do scientists often study twins?
4. What is the difference between identical and fraternal twins?
5. What can be determined if a characteristic appears more frequently in identical twin pairs
compared to fraternal twin pairs?
WHAT ARE DNA & GENES?
Get to know the molecule that holds the instructions for building every living thing.
http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/basics/dna
DNA is all the same chemical
1. How does DNA look in comparison to all other organisms on Earth?
2. What do all living things have in common?
3. What makes organisms different from one another?
The human genome
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What is “sequence”?
How do we read DNA?
What is the number of letters in the entire human genome?
How big of book would that information roughly fill in pages?
How many genes are in the human genome?
What do most of genes code for?
What other molecules can genes code for as well?
Your DNA makes you unique
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What percentage of our DNA sequence is the same in comparison to all other humans?
What makes us unique?
What base differences on average does a human gene have from person to person?
What effects can the differences of the bases have on proteins?
WHAT IS INHERITANCE?
Learn how traits pass from parents to offspring.
http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/basics/inheritance
Sources of variation
1. Why is genetic variation important?
2. What happens when individuals reproduce?
3. How does variation help?
4. In asexual reproduction, where does variation come from?
5. What is mutation?
6. What other ways can microbes acquire variation (3 different ways)?
7. When do these mechanisms exist?
8. Where does variation come from in sexual reproduction?
9. How does mutation create variation?
10. When are parental alleles shuffled?
11. Which produces more variation, sexual or asexual reproduction? Why?
Patterns of inheritance
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What are traits most commonly influenced by?
What are most traits patterns of inheritance?
What happens when a defective allele codes for a non-functional protein?
What can be said about single gene traits inheritance patterns?
What is eye color influenced by?
What are some of the variations in eye color genes?
Changes in DNA sequences in rare cases can cause what?
What does the pattern of inheritance predictability depend on?
Sex chromosome
1. What determines if an individual is male or female in mammals?
2. What sex chromosomes do females have?
3. What sex chromosomes do males have?
4. What sex chromosomes do birds and reptiles have?
5. What chromosomes do birds and reptile males have?
6. What chromosomes do birds and reptile females have?
7. What determines the sex of alligators, crocodiles and most turtles?
8. What can some fish do in response to environmental cues?
9. What two disorders are linked to genes on the X chromosome?
10. What sex is more likely have disorders that on the X chromosome? Why?
WHAT IS A MUTATION?
Take a look at how variation occurs.
http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/basics/mutation
Mutation Generates New Alleles
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What are the mutations created by slightly different versions of the same genes called?
What is the result of these small differences in the DNA sequence?
What types of variations can we see due to the differences?
Why is genetic variation useful?
What happens when variations help organisms survive?
What happens to variations that hinder survival?
What can the process of natural selection lead to?
How is genetic variation increased?
Mutation vs. variation
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What is the process of mutation referred to as?
When is this above mentioned approach most useful?
Is losing the function of a gene always affect health?
Give an example of loss of function, where it doesn’t make a difference?
Give two examples of variations that are considered neither good or nor bad?
What do the terms “normal” and “mutant” refer to?
Proteins and switches
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What can mutations in variations in protein-coding portions of genes affect?
What are “switches”?
How does lactose function in infants?
What happens when people do not make lactase and consume milk?
What is “lactase persistence”?
Other drivers of mutation: Environmental agents
1. What agents damage thousands of nucleotides in our cells every day?
2. How do they affect the nucleotides?
DNA repair
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What do DNA repair machines constantly do?
What happens if a cell accumulates too many changes?
What can the cell become if these processes go wrong?
What protection does sun screen offer ourselves?
When DNA changes are in the egg and sperm cells, what happens?
What does the built in sloppiness account for in mutations?