Science News

Two genetic variations are linked to a common form of glaucoma, known as primary open-angle glaucoma, according to new research. Glaucoma affects about 2.2 million people in the United States, the U.S. National Eye Institute said in a news release. One variant is in a gene located on chromosome 9. The second variant is in a region of chromosome 8, where it may affect the expression of one or two other genes. These genes may interact with a molecule that regulates cell growth and survival throughout the body, the researchers explained in the news release. The investigators believe future studies could focus on this molecule as a treatment for various forms of glaucoma.

Review
What are the definitions of the following? Character Trait Allele Homozygous Heterozygous Phenotype Genotype Dominant allele Recessive allele

Review
Are the following genotypes homozygous or heterozygous? TT Tt tt What phenotypes correspond to the following genotypes? Alleles: T tall; t short. Tall is dominant over short.

TT Tt tt

Some Questions
1. With regards to pea plants, are the following possible? Write down your answers for each quietly. a. Tall x Tall Short b. Short x Short Tall c. Tall x Short Short 2. If a tall pea plant mates with a short pea plant, what do you expect: more tall or more short pea plants?

Monohybrid Crosses Using Punnett Squares

Overview of Punnett Squares

Punnett squares are used to predict the traits that offspring have, given the traits of the parents. (Named after Reginald Punnett) Monohybrid crosses: crosses that concern only a single character
Characters in pea plants: stem length, flower color, pod color, seed color, pod shape (in Mendels pea plants) Other characters: presence of dimples, earlobes (free/attached), number of fingers/toes, etc.

An Example of a Monohybrid Cross

TT x tt (homozygous tall pea plant crossed with a homozygous short pea plant)
t t

T
T

Tt
Tt

Tt
Tt

Genotypes: all Tt (heterozygous tall) Phenotypes: all tall

Try this!
Tt x Tt

Genotypes: Phenotypes:

Genotypic and Phenotypic Ratios

Tt x Tt
T T TT t Tt

Tt

tt

Genotypes 1 TT, 2 Tt, 1 tt Genotypic ratio 1 TT: 2 Tt: 1 tt Phenotypes 3 tall, 1 short Phenotypic ratio 3 tall: 1 short

Genotypic and Phenotypic Ratios

TT x tt (homozygous tall pea plant crossed with a homozygous short pea plant)
t t

T
T

Tt
Tt

Tt
Tt

Genotypic ratio 100% Tt (or all Tt) Phenotypic ratio 100% tall (or all tall)

Try this!
The character involved is pod color. Green (G) is dominant over yellow (g). Construct a Punnett square for the following: Gg x gg (heterogyzous green pea plant crossed with a homozygous yellow pea plant)

Genotypic ratio Phenotypic ratio

An Experiment
Of course, what we have obtained from Punnett squares are the predicted genotypic and phenotypic ratios. But how can we see for ourselves that these ratios are really what they are? Of course, we cant cross live pea plants in the classroom as Mendel, wait for them to have offspring, and count manually, right? Thus we need a good model: coin flipping.

An Experiment
A coin represents the two alleles for a character of one parent. Thus, for the stem length character, if one side of the coin is labeled T and the other side is labeled t, then the genotype is Tt (heterozygous tall). So, for two parents, we need two coins.

An Experiment
Objective: Compare predicted and experimental GRs and PRs. Steps 1. Make sure that each coin is labeled T on one side and t on the other. 2. Make sure that each of you has two labelled coins. 3. Do this for 25 times (for 3 mins only!): Flip the two coins simultaneously, then record the results (Honestly) as follows: TT Tt tt 4. When youre done recording, pass the results to me and Ill compute something like the following:

Comparisons
Predicted Ratios Tt x Tt Experimental Ratios TT Tt tt GR:

T t

T TT Tt

t Tt tt

PR:

GR 1 TT: 2 Tt: 1 tt PR 3 tall: 1 short

An Experiment
Post-laboratory questions: 1. What comparison can you make between the experimental GR with the predicted GR? 2. What comparison can you make between the experimental PR with the predicted PR? 3. What can you conclude from the experiment? 4. How important is honesty and hard work in our experiment?

Mendels Results
Trait Flower color (Pp x Pp) Flower position (Aa x Aa) Seed color (Yy x Yy) Seed shape (Rr x Rr) Pod shape (Ii x Ii) Pod color (Gg x Gg) Stem length (Tt x Tt) Predicted PR 3:1 3:1 3:1 3:1 3:1 3:1 3:1 Experimental PR 705:224 651:207 6022:2001 5474:1850 882:299 428:152 787:277 Experimental PR (simplified) 3.15 : 1 3.14 : 1 3.01 : 1 2.96 : 1 2.95 : 1 2.82 : 1 2.84 : 1

Questions
1. Let us return at the beginning. For pea plants, are they possible? Why or why not? Tall x Tall Short Short x Short Tall Tall x Short Short 2. If a tall pea plant mates with a short pea plant, what do you expect: more tall or more short pea plants?

Questions
3. The trait of having many fingers or toes, or polydactyly (N), is a dominant trait over having a normal number of fingers or toes (n). If that is so, why is it that most of the human population have a normal number of fingers or toes?

Seatwork
1. Construct a Punnett square for each of the following crosses, then write down the genotypic ratios and the phenotypic ratios of the offspring: a. TT x Tt (for tallness; T tall; t short; T is dominant over t) b. GG x gg (for pea color; G green; g yellow; G is dominant over g)

Seatwork
2. Suppose you mate a heterozygous green pea plant (Gg) with a yellow pea plant (gg). Green (G) is dominant over yellow (g). Which of the following numbers of offspring and their phenotypes are the most likely for you to get? Choose the best response and in one sentence explain why that is your answer. Choices: A. 117 green, 212 yellow B. 114 green, 121 yellow C. 240 green, 0 yellow D. 401 green, 102 yellow