Arielle Basel

BIO 101-302
Lethal Genes- Evolution is a Revolution
November 14,2012

Alleles are types of genotypes inherited from an individuals parents. Lethal alleles cause
direct death to the individual or organism. (Science Dept. Chesapeake College, 2012, para1-3) A
recessive allele, in order to become lethal, will have to be inherited from both parents. (Science
Dept. Chesapeake College, 2012, para 3) In this laboratory experiment, students were asked to
show that the population of normal and lethal genes will evolve into a different population with
fewer lethal genes and more normal or non-lethal genes, after nine generations. (Science Dept.
Chesapeake College, 2012, para 6) I hypothesized, If we mix normal non-lethal genes (60 genes
or 30 people) with 40 lethal genes (40 genes or 20 people), then after nine generations, the
overall population will contain more amounts of lethal gene combinations.
We were asked to combine 60 normal genes shown by white beads with 40 lethal genes
shown by red beads in a tub together and randomly select pairs of genes. These genes would
either be NN- normal genes that did not contain the trait, Nn- normal genes that did contain the
trait recessively, or nn- lethal genes which meant the gene was non-viable and died. For nine
generations we repeated the experiment of randomly selecting gene pairs and removing the lethal
combinations that did not make it to the next generation of genes. Only after the first generation
did we replace the 5 lethal pairs that had been removed with 5 normal pairs to the population.
Our results were recorded in a data table.





In the first generation, there was a 90% normal gene rate and a 10% lethal gene rate. In
the second generation, there was a 92% normal gene rate and a 8% lethal gene rate. In the third
generation, there was a 96% normal gene rate and a 4% lethal gene rate. The fourth generation
contained a 98% rate of normal genes and a 2% lethal gene rate. The fifth generation had a 98%
normal gene rate and a 2% lethal gene rate as well. The sixth, eighth, and ninth generations all
had a 100% normal gene rate and a 0% lethal gene rate. The Seventh generation had a 95%
normal gene rate and a 5% lethal gene rate.
The data in this experiment did not support my hypothesis that there would be more
lethal gene combinations by the end of the ninth generation, the data proved the exact opposite of
my hypothesis as there was less lethal genes by the ninth generation, then at the beginning of the
experiment. The population decreased by 10 people after nine generations due to the lethal genes
0
10
20
30
40
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Lethal Genes
Nn normal genes carrier
NN normal genes not carrier
nn lethal genes non viable
eliminating them from the population altogether. The number of lethal gene combinations
decreased as well showing that in fact, after nine generations, a lethal gene will slowly breed out.
Works Cited
Science Department of Chesapeake College. Wye Mills, MD. 21679, 06/2012