ANSWERS:

GENETICS
1.Study how genes bring about characteristics or traits in living things and
those characteristics are inherited.

2.A gene is a sequence of DNA nucleotides that codifies the production of a

protein.

3. It was developed by the Augustinian monk named Gregor Mendel.

4. -A gene is not a triplet of DNA nucleotides with their respective nitrogen-

containing bases, like AAG or CGT. The nucleotide triplets may be pieces of
genes but not genes. A gene is a portion of a DNA molecule that codifies a
specific protein. Thus it is formed by several DNA nucleotide triplets.

5 -A chromosome is a DNA molecule. A chromosome may contain several

different genes and also DNA portions that are not genes.

6-Gene locus (locus means place) is the location of a gene in a chromosome;

the position of the gene in a DNA molecule.

7- This is alternative genes; it determines heritable traits.

8-A phenotype is every observable characteristic of a living being conditioned

by its genes. Some phenotypes may be altered by non-genetic factors (for
example, artificial hair coloring). Specific phenotypes are also called
phenotypical traits.

9-Genotype is the genes, DNA nucleotide sequences contained in the

chromosomes of an individual that condition the phenotype. Phenotypes then
are a biological manifestation of genotypes. For example, the altered
hemoglobin chain of sickle cell disease and the manifestation of the disease
itself are the phenotype. The altered DNA nucleotide sequence in the gene
that codifies the production of that abnormal hemoglobin chain is the
genotype.

1O-The environment can only alter genotypes when its action causes
alterations in the genetic material (mutations) of the individual, i.e., deletion,
addition or substitution of entire chromosomes or of nucleotides that form the
DNA molecules. Mutations are only transmitted to the offspring when affecting
the germ cells that produce gametes or the gametes themselves.

11- Heredity

12-Dominant allele is the allele that determines phenotypical features that

manifest in homozygous or heterozygous genotypes.In Genetics the dominant
allele is represented in uppercase, e.g., “A”, and its recessive allele is written
in lowercase, “a”.In molecular terms generally the recessive allele has a
nucleotide sequencepreviously identical to the corresponding sequence in the
dominant allele but that during evolution was inactivated by mutation. This
fact explains the expression of the dominant phenotype in heterozygosity
(since one functional allele is still present).

13-Garden pea or Pisum Sativum.

14-Monohybrid crosses

15-Hybrids

16- Dihybrid

17- These are sex cells

18- Punnett Square

19- It state that members of a gene pair separate when the sperm and egg are
formed.

20- It refers to a unit of heredity.

21- Genotype

22- Phenotype

23- Dominant allele

24- DNA or deoxyribonucleic acid

25- Mendel is considered the father of Genetics. He was a monk, biologist and
botanist born in Austria in 1822 and who died in 1884. During the years 1853
to 1863 he cultivated pea plants in the gardens of his monastery to be used in
his research. His experiments consisted of crossing pea plants of distinct
characteristics (size, color of the seeds, etc.), cataloging the results and
interpreting them. The experiments led him to enunciate his laws, results
published in 1886 with no scientific repercussion at that time. Only at the
beginning of the 20th century, in 1902, 18 years after his death, were his
merits broadly recognized.

26- Genetics is the crossing of individuals from “pure” and different lineages in
relation to a given trait; the crossing of different homozygous for the studied
trait.
27-The Mendel’s first law postulates that a characteristic (trait) of an individual
is always determined by two factors, one inherited from the father and the
other from the mother and the direct offspring of the individual receives from
it only one of these factors (aleatory). In other words, each trait is determined
by two factors that segregate during gamete formation.

28- These are flamentous structure in the cell nucleus, along which genes are
located.

29- family tree is a schematic family tree that shows the biological
inheritance of some trait through successive generations.

30 -Mendel’s second law states that gametes are formed always with an
aleatory representative of each pair of the factors that determine phenotypical
characteristics.Mendel’s second law is also known as the law of independent
segregation of factors, or law of independent assortment.

31-In the diploid genome of human beings there are 46 chromosomes,

44 of them are autosomes and two are sex chromosomes. The individual
inherits one of these chromosomes from each parent.The human sex
chromosomes are called X chromosome and Y chromosome. Individuals
having two X chromosomes (44 + XX) are female. Individuals having one
X chromosome and one Y chromosome (44 + XY) are male. (Individuals
44 + YY do not exist since the chromosome Y is exclusively from
paternal lineage.)

32-Homologous portion is that in which there are genes having alleles in both
Y and X sex chromosomes. The homologous portions are situated more in the
central part of the sex chromosomes, near the centromere. Heterologous
portion is that whose genes do not have correspondent alleles in the other sex
chromosome. These genes are located more in the peripheral regions of the
arms of the Y and X chromosomes.

33- X-linked traits are phenotypical traits conditioned by genes located in the
nonhomologous (heterologous) portions of the X chromosome.

34-Two genes are said to be under linkage, or linked, when they reside in the
same chromosome.For example, the research of the human genome
discovered that the factor III of clotting gene and the factor V of clotting gene
are located in the same chromosome (the human chromosome 1). The factor
VII gene however is not linked to those genes since it is located in the
chromosome 13.

35-Genetic engineering is the use of genetic knowledge to artificially

manipulate genes: It is one of the fields of biotechnology.