Mendel Quest

Mendel Quest 1. Click on and Read through “Children Resemble their Parents” and then go through the animation. a. Why do we resemble our parents? Because we get our genes, DNA, from our parents. b. Who was Gregor Mendel? Augustinian Monk who studied genetics c. In which year did Gregor Mendel make his important discovery? 1865 d. List three reasons Gregor Mendel used pea plants to study inherited traits. 1) Easy to grow 2) Have traits that distinguish them from other pea plants 3) Traits could be tracked e. What are the male part and female parts of a flower? Male- Stamen f. Female- Pistil Distinguish between self-fertilization and cross-fertilization. Self- Pollen from the plant fertilizes its own egg. Cross- Pollen from another plant fertilizes the egg. 2. Click on “Genes come in pairs” to answer the following questions. You will also have to read through the animation to answer the questions. a. What did Mendel mean when he said that each trait, in a pea plant, had alternative forms? For each trait, there are two options. b. Pure-bred plants have two copies of the _____same______ gene for each trait. c. List the seven pea plant traits that Mendel observed while doing these experiments 1) Flower Position 5) Seed Shape 2) Stem Length 6) 3) Pod Shape 7) 4) Pod Color Seed Color Seed Coat Color d. Define phenotype- Physical/Visible trait e. List the two phenotypes for the following traits: Height (stem length): can be _____Tall________ or ____Short_________ Seed shape: can be ______Round_______ or _____Wrinkled________ Seed Color can be ____Yellow_________ or _______Green______ Seed Coat Color: can be _______Colored______ or ______White_______ page 1 3. Read through “Some genes are dominant” and the animation. a. The terms dominant and recessive describe the behavior of trait options. Distinguish between these two terms. i. Dominant- Seen when a single copy of the gene is present. ii. Recessive- Only seen when offspring receives two copies of that gene. b. In some of Mendel’s experiments, he mated two yellow peas and evaluated the offspring. He found that some of the offspring were yellow and some were green. How did he explain this result? The green plants must have received two copies of the green gene. c. When Mendel mated a green pea plant (yy) with a Yellow pea plant (YY), what was the genotype (the letters) and the phenotype (visible color) of the offspring? Yy Yellow d. When Mendel mated a yellow pea pant (Yy) with a yellow pea plant (Yy), what were the genotype and phenotype of the offspring? YY Yy Yy yy- Three Yellow, One Green 4. Read through “Genetic inheritance follows rules” and the animation. a. Why would it be a problem if parents passed on both copies of their gene pairs to their offspring? 4 copies of each gene b. How is this problem solved? Each parent only gives one copy c. What is a gamete? Egg or sperm d. What is Mendel’s Law of Segregation? The two alleles (genes) from each parent are separated from each other so that they only give one. e. What is used to keep track of the gametes and possible offspring combinations? Punnett Square f. Who invented this tool? Reginald Punnett g. Follow along with the animation – complete the following Punnett square h. Label the parts of this diagram that represent the parent’s traits. Label the parts of the diagram that represent the possible traits of the offspring. i. Interpreting results: Out of four possible gene combinations: i. how many of the offspring are predicted to be YY? __1____ (this is the genotype) What color would they be?______Yellow_____________ (this is the phenotype) ii. how many of the offspring are predicted to be Yy? ___2___ What color would they be?____________Yellow_______ iii. how many of the offspring are predicted to be yy? __1____ page 2 What color would they be? _______Green____________ Vocabulary Review – Use the webquest, notes or textbook to help you match the vocabulary term to its definition vocab terms may be used once or twice. ALL will be used. ____ 1. Father of Genetics A. Allele ____ 2. Inherited characteristics that can differ from person to person. B. Dominant ____ 3. States that some alleles are dominant and others are recessive C. Gene ____ 4. The pairs of alleles present in a hybrid organism are D. Genotype ____ 5. Tool used to predict the outcome of a mating. E. Gregor Mendel ____ 6. Only one copy of this allele must be present to see this trait F. Heterozygous ____ 7. A segment of DNA that encodes information for a specific trait. G. Homozygous ____ 8. Term referring to the alternate variations in a trait (ex. Brown hair vs blond hair) H. Law of Segregation I. Phenotype ____ 9. An organism’s genetic make-up J. Punnett Square ____ 10. Organism that has two different copies of an allele K. Principle of Dominance ____ 11. Organism that has two of identical copies of an allele L. Recessive ____ 12. The pairs of alleles present in a pure-bred organism are M. Trait ____ 13. When an organism produces gametes, the two alleles separate from one another so that each gamete carries only one allele. ____ 14. Physical appearance of an organism ____ 15. Two copies of this trait must be present to see this trait. 16. Explain or sketch the relationship between DNA, genes, chromosomes and traits. page 3