Defining the Basics
This term describes a specific characteristic of an individual, such as height or eye color.
What is a trait?
This threadlike structure is found in the nucleus and carries genetic information in the form of genes.
What is a chromosome?
Gregor Mendel famously used this specific type of plant to conduct his genetics experiments.
What are garden pea plants?
This term refers to the actual genetic makeup or the "letters" an organism has for a trait.
What is a genotype?
A father with genotype TT and a mother with tt have a 100% chance of producing offspring with this specific genetic description.
What is heterozygous (Tt)?
While a "trait" is specific to an individual, this term refers to a characteristic that every member of a species shares.
What is a feature?
These are the different forms or variations of a single gene.
What are alleles?
This is the process in sexual reproduction where male and female cells join to form a brand new cell.
What is fertilization?
If an organism has the genotype AA or aa, it is described by this term.
What is homozygous?
In a cross between two heterozygous parents (Tt x Tt), what is the percentage chance the offspring will be homozygous recessive?.
List three examples of physical traits specifically found in animals.
What is (ex: fur color, wing shape, and beak size)?
This unique molecule contains the genetic code that is specific to every individual.
What is DNA?
This law of heredity states that organisms inherit two copies of each gene—one from each parent—but only pass one copy to their offspring.
What is the Law of Segregation?
If "Q" is dominant for orange and "q" is recessive for lavender, what is the phenotype of an organism with the genotype Qq?.
What is orange?
Identify one example of a mutation that is considered "good" or beneficial for humans.
What is (ex. Malaria Resistance)?
Identify three different functions that spider silk can serve for an organism.
What is (ex. catching prey, protection, and reproduction)?
These specific types of proteins act as "messengers" to help coordinate biological processes between cells.
What are signaling proteins?
Define Mendel’s Second Law, also known as the Law of Independent Assortment.
What is the Law of Independent Assortment (allele pairs separate independently during gamete formation)?
This term describes the physical appearance or visible traits that we can actually see in an organism.
What is phenotype?
This type of diagram is used to show how traits are passed down through multiple generations of a family.
What is a family tree?
Provide the biological definition for a "species".
What is a group of organisms that are closely related and can mate to produce fertile offspring?
Explain why a "nonfunctional protein" might fail to do its job inside an organism.
Because it often has an incorrect shape or a mutation that prevents it from functioning.
Explain the difference between "inheriting" a trait and a "mutation".
Inheriting is receiving information from parents via reproduction , while a mutation is a random change in a gene that can create a new trait.
If an organism is Heterozygous for a trait, what would its genotype look like using the letter "A"?.
What is Aa? (two different alleles)
In a cross between two heterozygous parents (Tt x Tt), what are the three possible percentages for the offspring's genotypes?.
What are 25% Homozygous dominant, 50% Heterozygous, and 25% Homozygous recessive?