Download GENETICS NOTES PART 2 With inherited traits, recessive traits like

GENETICS NOTES PART 2
With inherited traits, recessive traits like red hair may skip a generation so offspring may
inherit traits that grandparents or great grandparents had, but parents did not have.
Dominant traits like dwarfism which is dominant can cause two dwarf parents to have a
normal size child.
Besides inherited traits which are genetically passed on by DNA in the genes, there are
acquired traits which are gained after birth and not able to be passed on to offspring.
Examples would be scars, ability to play sports through practice, ability to play a musical
instrument by practicing, and environmental affects on plants and animals like lack of
rain, hurricanes or tornadoes. Acquired traits must be acquired by each generation by
environmental, not genetic factors.
There are two types of reproduction: Sexual—which requires two parents. The offspring
gets genes from father through a sperm cell and genes from mother through an egg cell.
This allows half of an organisms DNA to come from each parent and combine to make
the new individual which has DND of both parents. Examples would be the pea plant
where it is cross pollinated and dogs where it requires two parents to get puppies.
The second type of reproduction is Asexual---it requires only one parent. The offspring
are genetically exactly like the parent so you can’t tell one’s DNA from its parent. The
advantage of sexual reproduction is difference in a species which increases the chance to
survive. Examples would be a bacterium splitting in half and making two identical
bacteria, a yeast budding and making two yeasts, and a starfish being cut in five arms and
each arm making a new identical starfish.