Genetics

this unit covers 3 projects. the super crop project, the murder mystery project and the pikiwi lab. through these projects we learned about genetics

SUPER CROP PROJECT

the super crop project put my group consisting of myself, quincy, gracie, and amanda in the shoes of farmers given the task of creating the best super crop for a private food supply company who had hired us. We had to use the knowledge we had acquired of genetics and inheritance to create the most ideal crop for the company. Our crop had to be the best so that we could convince the food supply company to use our crop over neighboring farms. Also we were not allowed to use any GMOs.

We were given nine genotypes to past down two of three traits and those three traits were drought resistant, pest resistant, and frost resistant. Out of the three traits my group determined that crops that were pest and drought resistant would be the most beneficial. As farmers in california these traits would be the most beneficial to our crop because california is a state that has suffered periods of drought on and off for centuries. Also in most areas of california the weather rarely gets cold enough to encounter frost so frost resistance would be very unnecessary. knowing all this background information helped us decide what was best for our crop. for this project we had to have 3 generations of our crop in order to have the best probability of having the strongest crop.

The parents that we chose to do this with were a dominant pest resistant allele and recessive drought resistant allele and we chose them because those were the ones that gave us the correct alleles to make our crop how we wanted it.

quincy super crop project

MAJOR CONCEPTS

Gene - DNA sequence coding for a protein that determines a trait

Allele - different versions of the same gene (uppercase,lowercase)

Phenotype - physical appearance or the trait

Genotype - allele combinations

Homozygous - two of the same alleles

Heterozygous - two different alleles

Dominant - allele that is always expressed

Recessive - allele that is only expressed in the recessive allele

Codominance - both alleles contribute to the phenotype (spotted, striped)

Incomplete dominance - neither allele is completely dominant (white+red=pink)

Inheritance - genes or traits you get from parents

Variation - any difference between individuals

Punnett square - a diagram used to predict the genotypes of a cross

Heredity - passing on of characteristics from parents to offspring passing on of characteristics from parents to offspring

Hybrid - offspring formed by parents having different forms of a specific trait

Gene - DNA sequence coding for a protein that determines a trait

Allele - different versions of the same gene (uppercase,lowercase)

Phenotype - physical appearance or the trait

Genotype - allele combinations

Homozygous - two of the same alleles

Heterozygous - two different alleles

Dominant - allele that is always expressed

Recessive - allele that is only expressed in the recessive allele

Codominance - both alleles contribute to the phenotype (spotted, striped)

Incomplete dominance - neither allele is completely dominant (white+red=pink)

Inheritance - genes or traits you get from parents

Variation - any difference between individuals

Punnett square - a diagram used to predict the genotypes of a cross

Heredity - passing on of characteristics from parents to offspring passing on of characteristics from parents to offspring

Hybrid - offspring formed by parents having different forms of a specific trait

← on the right is my groups super crop presentation and you can scroll through to learn more.

MAJOR CONCEPTS

Pedigrees - chart used to trace the phenotypes and genotypes in a family in order to determine whether people carry diseases or traits, circles in the pedigree represent female while squares represent male, shaded in means the trait is expressed.

Autosomal Dominant - pattern of inheritance characteristic of some genetic disorders. Dominant shows that the disease is common in the family and equally common in males and females also that it doesn't skip generations.

Autosomal Recessive - A way that a disease or trait can be passed through families. Recessive means the disease is rare, although this type of inheritance pattern is common. The disease will commonly skip generations and males and females are likely to inherit it.

Sex-linked Recessive - In pedigrees and diseases, sex-linked recessive shows that the disease affects males more often than females. Fathers are unable to pass this disease onto their sons because they are only able to pass down the Y chromosome and not the affected X chromosome.

Karyotypes - A diagram that shows the number and visual appearance of chromosomes in an organism.

Gene Mutations - causes a change to the original DNA sequence

Point mutations: one nucleotide substituted for another (replication errors or environmental mutagens)

Frame-switch mutation: the insertion or deletion of a nucleotide (affects all codons that come after the insertion or deletion)

Chromosome Mutations - changing of the number or location of genes

Duplication: multiple copies of a single gene

Translocation: pieces of non-homologous chromosomes exchanging segments

Nondisjunction: chromosomes not separate correctly during anaphase (1 or 3 chromosomes rather than 2)

To the left is my groups lab write up, read it to here our take on what and who happened to carlton comet. →

MURDER MYSTERY PROJECT

for this project we were task with investigating a murder and finding the culprit using forensic science to uncover the real story. We were given a sheet of paper describing what took place on the night of of the crime along with another paper detailing the backgrounds of each of our possible suspects along with our victim. to find out who killed our victim carlton comet we conducted several experiments to simulate real forensic science including fingerprinting and blood typing, finally we created a write up based on our findings that shows who we believe to be the murderer, the evidence that proves they are the murder, and what their motive for murdering carlton was.

Murder Mystery Lab Write Up

PIKIWI LAB

The Pikiwi lab was a lab thats purpose was to help us better understand genetic modification or GMOs something that was brought up in our super crop project. For this lab we learned what genetic modification was and we analyzed multiple methods of of genetic modification. Then we were tasked with performing the bacterial transfer method in order to place desired traits in to bacterial cells. the goal of this lab was for us to explain what happens inside of a transformed bacteria cell to produce a new trait using cause and effect language and by creating a scientific model.

for this lab we created Green flashing microorganisms that served as our GMO and we made it by combining Green Fluorescent Protein with E. coli bacteria. the Bacteria glows as a result.

←to the right are the results of our lab. Our lab was not successful but we were still able to learn a lot from this experience

Major Concepts

Biotechnology - a laboratory method that uses an electric current to separate DNA fragments based on their molecular size

DNA Fingerprinting - a laboratory technique used to determine the probable identity of a person based on the nucleotide sequence of certain regions of human DNA that are unique to individuals

Gel Electrophoresis - a laboratory method that uses an electric current to separate DNA fragments based on their molecular size

Genetic Engineering - The direct manipulation of an organism's genome using biotechnology. The process of replacing specific genes in an organism in order to ensure that the organism expresses a desired trait

DNA Extraction - DNA is extracted from an organism known to have a desired trait

Gene Cloning - the gene of interest is located and copied

Gene Modification - the gene is modified to express in a desired way by altering and replacing gene region

Reflection

the genetic unit overall taught me alot and was sorta enjoyable even though some things like the lab were unsuccessful. I feel that most of my groups work was very well done but some parts due to poor time management were neglected and were not executed . the three projects that we did helped expand my knowledge of genetics and inheritance

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