What i learned in class during 2/16/12 & 2/17/12

              The major thing i learned is the Dihybrid Cross. Some fun fact i learned about it is that it has sixteen boxes not like the monohybrid one, it only has four boxes. I also learned that Dihybrid Cross is a cross between F1 offspring of two individuals that differ in two traits of particular interest. I also learned another law which is law of independent assortment. It just means that the factors are distributed to gametes independently of other factors.
               I learned about blood types. AB can receive from every blood type. O can donate to every blood type. Also blood type AB is not that common, its rare.

Real Life Genetics Online Activity

Activity 1:  http://ib.berkeley.edu/courses/ib162/Week3a.htm

1.) What assumptions about the inheritance of alleles must you make to use a test-cross to determine the genotype of an individual expressing the dominant phenotype?
In the inheritance of alleles, you must assume that both dominants or at least one dominant is present in the genotype.


2.) How would you determine the genotype of an agouti cat?
Agouti is determined by the dominant agouti allele, A. In contrast, hairs on non-agouti cats are unbanded, producing a solidly colored coat, such a cat is homozygous for the non-agouti allele (aa) at the agouti locus. In short, the genotype would be AA or Aa.


3.) Why do population geneticists prefer to work with codominant genes?
Population Geneticists prefer to work with codominant genes so in that way, they can experiment different genes that come up with different phenotypes.


4.) Develop a table describing the possible genotypes and their phenotypes that could result from a cross between a tortoiseshell and a black cat. Assume both cats are homozygous BB.
BB. 
B B
B BB BB
B BB BB


5.) What effect might a striped (vs. solid) coat have on the fitness of a wild cat?
The effect might happen is that the thick fur might slow the cat down. Someday a predator might chase it and the cat will be extra slow due to the fur thickness.

6.) If you mated two white cats, would you be confident of always obtaining white progeny? Explain.
I would be 75% confident because there is a 75% chance of it being white and a 25% of it being spotted.

 7.) What factors determine allele frequency? Is a dominant allele always the most frequent allele at a locus? 

Factors that determine allele frequency is based on the alleles of the parents and the probability of the allele being dominant as oppose to the recessive. Also, Dominant allele will NOT be always the most frequent allele at a locus because the parents can have recessive and that can carry out onto the alleles' of the next generation to have also recessive.

8.) Manx cats have no tail and relatively long rear legs. What is the genotype of a Manx cat? Do you expect the frequency of Manx cats to increase over time? Why or why not?

The genotype of a Manx cat would be tt. No is my response for the the second question because since the genotype is tt , the reproduction of alleles and genes will only have tt thus making tt replicants.

Activity 2: http://www.stat.ucla.edu/cases/ 

1.) Under this model, what is the chance of agreement between the observed and expected frequencies of

smooth and wrinkled as close as that reported by Mendel, or closer?
This theory would predict 75% smooth and 25% wrinkled among the cross of two first-generation hybrids -- 3 s for every 1 w. Mendel did it 7324 times and got 5474/7324 = 74.7% smooth and 1850/7324 = 25.3% wrinkled.

2.) What do you conclude on the basis of this one set of results about whether he fudged his data?

I conclude that Mendel's theory is right but according to fisher, Mendel's gardening assistant messed his experiment up but for me, Mendel's experiment is pretty accurate and reliable according to the the experiments he did.

 

Activity 3: http://www.biology.arizona.edu/human_bio/problem_sets/blood_types/Intro.html

1. Is a type O possible in this situation? Yes, type O is possible in this situation.
2. Possible blood types of offspring? Possible blood types are A, B, AB, or O.
3. What blood type would the father be? Blood type AB.
4. What are the potential blood types of the father of my son?  Either blood type A or B.
5. Who is NOT the father of my grandson? One who has Blood type O.
6. Do we all have the same biological father? No.
7. Is it possible to have a different blood type that either of your parents? Definitely yes! 

Heredity Webquest!

         Completed in 2003, Human Genome project was a 13-year project. What scientists are trying to do before 2001 were to identify all the 20,000-25,000 genes in human DNA, determine the sequences of the 3 billion chemical base pairs that make human DNA,  store information in databases, and improve tools for data and analysis. This project catalyzed the multibillion-dollar U.S. biotechnology industry and fostered the development of new medical applications. ( http://www.ornl.gov/sci/techresources/Human_Genome/home.shtml )
          Until DNA evidence was introduced, the only physical evidence to identify a suspect was fingerprints. Fingerprint evidence has always been reliable, but since DNA has been introduce it has become the evidence of choice when playing a criminal suspect at the crime scene. Making my DNA information available in public is not good as what you think because our DNA is our personal information that should be kept by myself, and its your privacy. Also, some scientist might be your interested about DNA and they'll be starting to stalk you and make you as their experiment which is creepy. ( http://www.criminaldefenseassociates.com/index.php/resources/dna_evidence )
          Sex linked traits are technically abnormalities caused by x-linked chromosomes (when you inherit x chromosomes i.e.both men and woman) and i find this really interesting. It is expected to affect more men than women. Also, its more likely to be passed on your children and even to your grandchildren. Hemophilia is a genetic disorder so if a person has hemophilia, then they should avoid having kids because they'll just harm the kids and going to make them suffer. ( http://biology.clc.uc.edu/courses/bio105/sex-link.htm )
          The human epigenome project aims to identify, catalogue and interpret genome-wide DNA methylation patterns of all human genes in all major tissues and to focus on those factors. This is a multinational science project and ran by some Germany, USA, UK, and France group. Also cancer research scientist from all over the world supported this project. This project hopes to make a new discovery in the world. ( http://www.epigenome.org/index.php?page=project ) and ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_Epigenome_Project )

The Powerful Osmosis (section 2)

Section II responses.

1.) Osmosis is the flow/movement of water through a semipermeable membrane.
2.) Diffusion is the movement from a part of highly concentrated  to a region in which they're less concentrated.
3.) The difference between osmosis and diffusion is that diffusion is one-way movement from areas of high concentration to low concentration while osmosis is more specifically for liquid (water), through a semi permeable membrane from areas of high water concentration to low water concentration.
4.) Energy is NOT used in either process because they are both Passive transport, which means no energy is required for the molecules to move in and out of the cell.
5.) A concentration gradient is when there is an uneven distribution of substance across a border. An example is a balloon. the air inside is more concentrated than the outside.
6.) Osmosis and diffusion both uses the word solute and solvent in their process's.
7.) Water is ALWAYS a solvent because water atoms are bipolar and there's a positive and negative side which helps anything solve in water.

The Powerful Osmosis (section 1)

The websites i chose for section I are purchon.com, alienryderflex.com, and biology.arizona.edu. According to those websites, i learned basic stuff about osmosis. Osmosis is the passage of the water from a region of high concentration through semi-permeable membrane to a region of low water concentration. I also learned some molecules that can easily go through the cell membrane. The molecules that i'm talking about are oxygen, water, CO2, ammonia, glucose, and amino-acids. However, it doesn't allow larger molecules such as sucrose, starch, and protein. I also finally understood what semi-permeable is; capable of only having certain things get through it, just like small molecules.

The second source has a little information about osmosis in general, it focused on a example and more illustrations. However, i found a great information about osmosis. Osmosis is the process by which small molecules automatically cross a semi-permeable membrane, compensating for a difference in the concentration of those molecules on either side of the membrane. About vocab, I kind of didn't knew what compensate means so i looked it up. It means to counterbalance; offset; be equivalent to.
The third source is what i like the most. I got a lot of information on the third source. There are Certain requirements in order to remain alive. Some major requirements are exchanging gas, taking in water, food, minerals, and eliminating wastes. It's not that i didn't knew those things. its just that i wanted to point it out because i find it important and interesting. There are also two ways that molecules move through membrane; passive transport, which doesn't require energy, and active transport which uses energy. I didn't know that equilibrium has two types. Two types of equilibrium are static equilibrium, which no action takes place, and dynamic equilibrium, which two opposing actions occur. I also knew that diffusion occurs when a system is not at equilibrium.
This section's information are pretty straight forward. It was a great start to begin the packet. Having the knowledge about osmosis to start will help you through the other sections. See you till next section!

Kingdoms and beyond!

This activity refreshed my memory about kingdoms. The six kingdoms are Archaebacteria, Eubacteria, Animalia, Plantae, Fungi, Protista.I also learned that there's two types of cells. Those cells are prokaryote, which means simple, and eukaryote, which means large and more complex. Prokaryote originated first so eukaryote is newer.
It's also interesting how the sketch of the cell are mostly round and oval shape.

This activity was fun and educational at the same time. I like the sketch part because i like drawing. I like the fact that this topic seems easy because i learned it two years ago. It refreshed my brain! So yeah, see you in my next blog! ;)

Super Duper Cell!

Cells are the structural and functional units of all living organisms. I learned that our body is made up of an estimated 100,000,000,000,000 cells! I also knew that the type of cells we have is Eukaryotic. It's pretty interesting how the inside of a cell is watery and jelly like. Also, it's funny how cells are very very small and you need to use a microscope just to see it.

The webquest that we did yesterday was fun and educational for me at the same time. On that webquest, my memory got refreshed from 2 years ago about organelles. I'm looking forward learning these stuff again because this is my favorite topic in Science. I will try to get A on every assignment that conncets to this topic. So see you on my next blog! Adios :)