Genetics Review

Questions you might have

Why do we look like our parents?

Why do I look the way that I do?

How do people inherit different eye colors? What is a genetic disorder? Why did Mendel choose to work with pea plants? Who was Gregor Mendel? What determines a persons hair color?

Why do we look like our parents?

The traits that you inherit come from both of your parents.
The genetic information that determines how we look is encoded
into 46 structures called chromosomes. You inherit 23 from your mother and 23 from your father.

Your parents genetic information contains everything about their

bodies, like height, eye color, skin color, blood typethe list goes on and on. Since you inherit your genetic material from your parents, its pretty common for you to inherit certain traits that are present in their DNA! next is called heredity.

The passing-down of physical traits from one generation to the

Why do I look the way that I do?

The way you look has a lot to do with your genes. Your genetic material is
made of DNA.

DNA stands for deoxyribonucleic acid. DNA is the molecule that carries the
instructions for how each cell in your body should grow and behave. It carries the genetic code that determines your hair color, eye color, skin color, body type, and lots of other factors.

DNA is present in all living cells, too plants, animals, fungi, and protists all
have DNA. Your DNA is like your genetic thumbprint. It is yours and yours alone. You inherit it from your biological mom and dad. Unless you have an identical twin, no one else on the planet has exactly the same DNA as you, even your brothers and sisters.

Environmental factorsincluding the region where you live, your diet, and your lifestylealso contribute to how you look, but the basic blueprint of your body is contained in your DNA.

How do people inherit different eye colors?

Eye color is genetic. This means you inherit it from your parents.
Each parent gives you an allele, and the way they interact determines what eye color you will have.

Having brown eyes is a dominant trait (B), while blue eyes are
recessive (b). What this means is that someone needs to have two copies of the blue-eye gene (bb) in order to have blue eyes.

If theres one copy of the dominant allele (B), the person will have
brown eyes. So, someone who has brown eyes can have the genotype BB or Bb. If theyre BB, that means theyre going to pass on a dominant allele to their offspring, who will also have brown eyes. If theyre Bb, they can pass on either a B or a b, so the offsprings eyes can be blue or brown, depending on the gene the other parent contributes.

What is a genetic disorder?

A genetic disorder is a disease or disability caused by a
problem in a persons genetic code. Hereditary diseases are genetic disorders that are passed from parent to child. Theyre not contagious. Some disorders are inherited from just one parent, while others require both parents to be genetic "carriers." Some examples of genetic disorders are Huntington's disease, Marfan syndrome, and cystic fibrosis.
linked to several genes as well as environmental factors and a person's lifestyle. Disorders that fall into this category include asthma, diabetes, heart disease, some types of cancer, obesity, and more.

Other genetic disorders are more complex. They may be

Why did Mendel choose to work with pea plants?

Mendel chose pea plants for his hybridization experiments
because pea plants have simple traits. That means that genetic changes in pea plants are very simple and easily identified. They either occur or they dont. The seven traits that Mendel examined were: smoothness of ripe seeds, color of seed albumen (the nutritious fluid surrounding the embryo in a seed), color of seed coats, inflation of ripe seed pods, color of unripe seed pods, the position of flowers, and the length of the stems. Mendel learned a lot about how dominant and recessive genes work, but he didnt have the scientific tools to understand genetics to the extent we do today.

Who was Gregor Mendel?

Gregor Mendel (1822-1884) was an Austrian scientist and priest.
He is often called the father of genetics for establishing some basic principles of heredity.

From 1856 to 1863, Mendel collected and cultivated nearly 29,000

pea plants. By studying how traits were passed on from one generation of pea plants to another, he learned about dominant and recessive traits.

Mendel chose pea plants for his hybridization experiment because

pea plants have simple traits. That means that genetic changes in pea plants are very simple and easily identified. Mendel learned a lot about how dominant and recessive genes work, but he didnt have the scientific tools to understand genetics to the extent we do today.

What determines a persons hair color?

Hair color is genetic. There are at least two gene pairs that control human hair color. There is one gene pair that determines whether hair is brown or blond. This is called the brown/blonde pair. The brown allele is dominant and the blonde hair is recessive. So, if a person has the brown allele, they will have brown hair; otherwise, they will be blonde. The other gene pair is a red/not-red pair. The not-red allele is dominant, and the allele for red hair is recessive. Since the two gene pairs both decide hair color, a person with two copies of the red-haired allele will have red hair, but whether it will be auburn or bright red depends on whether the first gene pair gives brown or blond hair. The recessive genes for brown/blonde and red hair are found mostly in populations of white people. There is also a black hair gene that is usually related to darker skinned people. This two-gene model doesn't explain the different shades of color that can exist, or why someone's hair may change color over time. There are probably other genes that are involved that have yet to be discovered.