Lecture, chapter 5 - Polygenes and multifactorial inheritanceAssigned reading - Quantitative genetics

Today we finished chapter 5, on polygenic and multifactorial inheritance, and on quantitative genetics.

We discussed concepts as norm of reaction, phenotypic distribution, distribution of environments, and heritability.

Please refer to the handout 'quantitative genetics' (file name: PhenDist+NormReaction.pdf) for the theoretical background required to understand this lecture, lacking in the text book. The handout is available in pdf format in the p-drive and WebCT.

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Lab 02 - Mendelian genetics

Today we did a practical exercise to illustrate the principles of segregation and independent assortment.

We used DrosophiLab, a free software package that allows for virtual crosses among fruit flies that can be set as homozygous or heterozygous for a variety of genes. On each cross one can generate anywhere from 1 to 50,000 offspring and perform different observations, including chi-square tests.

Following certain procedures students were able to test predictions (Punnet squares) by generating generations of flies, that were explained by Mendelian principles.

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Lecture, chapter 5 - Polygenic and multifactorial inheritance

Today we finished chapter 4 (pedigree analysis) and started chapter 5, on polygenic and multifactorial inheritance.

We introduced the main differences between continuous and discontinuous variation, and discussed why to study the former we need to make use of statistics, studying large samples (populations) under the scope of quantitative genetics. In the next meeting we will introduce some important concepts in quantitative genetics.

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