Mendelian Cracker

The foundation of genetics lies with the principles that Gregor Mendel outlined after his experiments with pea plants where he discovered the relationship between physical characteristics, or phenotype, and genetic traits, or genotype. This experiment aimed to reproduce Mendel’s results with the Brassica rapa plant, noted for it’s fast generation time, and anthocyanin, a purple pigment that can be visually tracked through subsequent generations. It is important for experiments resulting in scientific discovery to be replicable and peer reviewed. Since Mendelian genetics are the foundation of scientific education, including answering questions about

Beginning in 1856 with Mendel's work on heredity, it tells the story of man’s struggle to decipher the human genome, understand it, and use it for both good and evil. The Gene: An Intimate History also tells the personal story of the Mukherjee family and their

As “the father of modern genetics”, Mendel made a huge impact on science by discovering the basic laws of heredity, with dominant and recessive traits. Through these discoveries he inspired many scientists to jump onto genetics and try to replicate his experiment to confirm his results.

Introduction: Genetics is the study of how genes and heredity combine to create traits in living organisms. Gregor Mendel disproved the theory that heredity comes only from parents. He discovered that there were dominant and recessive genes and his “Law of Dominance” has been used to selectively breed plants and animals for particular attributes. It has also been successfully adopted to identify the risk of passing down genetic diseases. Francis Galton took Mendel’s discoveries further by studying multifactoral inheritance and discovering ‘blending traits’, also known as continuous variation. With these traits, involvement of a wide range of genetic and environmental factors results in the creation of wide-ranging genotypes.

Specifically, a humans’ ability to detect Phenylthiocarbamide (PTC). Humans typically fall into two groups; Tasters vs Non-tasters. The ability to discern the bitter taste that PTC provides. Scientists have discovered that the key to this ability resides on the 7th chromosome in a gene called TAS2R38. PTC is a synthetic compound that is found in natural substances such as cruciferous vegetables. Possible reasons for the natural selection of the tasting mutation could be for detecting poisons in plants and to prevent high quantities of PTC in the body, which can interfere with iodine metabolism. The distribution of this gene varies globally, the highest percent of non-tasters being the aborigine of Australia at 49.7%, the lowest percent of non-tasters being the residents of central America at 9.9%. Even in our primate cousins have a similar mutation that evolved separately.

The X2 value for each cross was calculated to determine that the observed and expected ratios according to Mendelian inheritance were close in agreement (Garey et. al 2013). In order to determine if the observed deviations for each cross were within the limits expected by chance,10% and 25% of similar trials. The monohybrid autosomal ap/ap x +/+ cross results were the most similar in comparison of results and probability of all the crosses. The chi-square results were extremely similar as expected and both accept the hypothesis that deviations

Many concepts relevant to this topic are discussed in the article titled, “Decline in Taste and Odor Discrimination Abilities with Age, and Relationship between Gustation and

What has got a lot of people excited, though, is the idea that epigenetic switches might be transmitted down the generations. Some see this as contrary to Darwinism, since it would permit characteristics acquired during an organism’s lifetime to be passed on to its offspring, as suggested by a rival theory of evolution put forward by Jean-Baptiste Lamarck. This is an exaggeration. The DNA sequence itself is not being permanently altered. Even those epigenetic changes that are inherited seem to be subsequently reversible. But the idea that acquired characteristics can be inherited at all is still an important and novel one, and a worrying example of the phenomenon has been published this week in BioMed Central Medicine.

You can either be a homozygote which is when you have two copies of the same gene or you can heterozygote which is when you have one copy of each gene

Gene- a piece of DNA that will carry the information it needs to make a specific protein.

Three genotypes that can be associated with simple Mendelian traits are AA (homozygous dominant- dominant); Aa (heterozygous- dominant); aa (homozygous recessive- recessive).

Purpose: The purpose of the genetic inheritance experiment is to show the understanding of how the reception of genetic qualities by transmission from parent to offspring work. Procedures: For the first exercise, I recorded the F2 seeding color. I recorded the frequency of green: white plants that will result in the F2 progeny.

Contrary to Mendel’s famed notions - the idea that the fate of one’s genes is mapped out with some DNA coming from the mother and some from the father - Moalem demonstrates that although one’s genome may be set in stone from day one, the way one expresses those genes may differ completely (Moalem, 2014). Learning objective 3.15 corresponds to what was previously discussed: Mendel’s laws deviate from the inheritance of traits. As expressed in the learning curriculum, transcription

Humans show extensive variations in taste sensitivity, which explains why each enjoy different types of food (Kim and Drayna 275). This fact is due to genetic origin and has opened a new door to determine the ability to taste Phenylthiocarbamide (PTC). This substance has an unusual capability of being tasteless or bitter depending on the genetic makeup of individuals. The discovery of this phenomenon was in 1931 by a chemist called Arthur Fox, who conducted an experiment among family and friends and noticed that some people tasted nothing while others tasted it bitter. After, the discovery many investigations were conducted to see the connections between Mendel’s principles of inheritance and the ability to taste PTC. Studies indicated that the ability to taste PTC in inherited as a Mendelian dominant (T), leading to the finding of a gene known as TAS2R38, which codes for a receptor protein that binds PTC (Overath, 2011).

Gregor Mendel, known as the father of genetics researched about genetics before which there was a common belief that a child may inherit certain physical characteristics or traits or there are physical similarities among the family members such as the parents with grey eyes will have children with grey eyes or if there is baldness in the family history then the same pattern may follow in the further generations as well. But, later after Mendel researched about it people got to know about specific mechanisms due to which such transfer of traits takes place from parents to the child.