Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Lab 1 - Basic Human Genetics

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

After choosing teams and topics for the bioethics projects we did the first lab of the quarter, on very basic human genetics.

We covered the basics of pedigree analysis, and each student built their own family pedigrees mapping on them four traits that are inherited in a Mendelian fashion: Hitchhiker's thumb, tongue rolling, free/attached earlobe, and hand folding. Genotypes were assigned to each individual in the pedigree to the extent that the available information allowed it.

Then, using the students' genotypes for the four mentioned traits, students used pieces of paper representing chromosomes with their alleles to perform simulations of gametogenesis to illustrate Mendel's principle of segregation, and of crosses generating several offspring, to illustrate Mendel's principle of independent assortment.

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