Determining the offspring (11/28-10/2)


This is a punnett square used to determine what the offspring could be
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/22/Punnett_Square.svg/220px-Punnett_Square.svg.png


Summary:

You may be wondering why you look like somebody in your family. Or why you have some of the same traits as them. All of this ties to a powerful word, genetics. 

In each trait (a trait is a notable feature of quality in a person), there are two alleles. One allele is inherited from each parent. To represent these alleles, you use big letters and small letters. The letter you use does not matter. For example, if your dad had brown eyes, and your mom had green eyes, the genotype (combination of two alleles) would be Nn.  I will explain how this is determined below.

How is the genotype determined?

The big letter is the dominant trait. The dominant trait is the trait that shows in somebody. The small letter is the recessive trait. This is the trait that you won't see unless it is homozygous (also known as pure-bred), meaning there are two of the same alleles. The dominant trait is not decided by quantity. 

Brown eyes are a dominant trait. Any other eye color is recessive. If a father has brown eyes, and a mother has green eyes, the genotype would be Nn. This is a heterozygous (also known as a hybrid) trait, meaning that there are two different alleles in the trait. The offspring (result) would be brown eyes. 

As another example, freckles are dominant, and no freckles are recessive. If neither parents have freckles, even though this is a recessive trait, the offspring will be no freckles because it is a homozygous recessive trait. The genotype would be nn. However, if one parent had freckles and the other did not, then the offspring would be freckles because freckles are a dominant trait. The genotype in this case would be Nn.

Conclusion:

Have you determined why you have freckles, or why you don't have brown eyes by determining the genotype? Now that I have learned about genetics, I know why I have dark hair, why I don't have dimples, and more, all thanks to genetics.

SP4: Analyzing and interpreting data:

This week we used a graph to display and analyze data and figure out what the offspring of our superhero and its mate would be by looking at the traits, and figuring out what the genotype would be. This helped us to have a better understanding of how genetics work.

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