Warm-up

Use your concept map from yesterday to complete the sentences. The study of how traits are inherited through the interaction of _____ is the science of genetics. An allele that is covered up by another allele is called _____. Organisms with two alleles that are the same are called _____.

Dominant and Recessive Traits

Objectives
Take an inventory of your own easily observable genetic traits. Compare and contrast your own unique combination of traits with other 7th graders.

What are traits?

Physical Traits
Can be seen by others Eye color, hair color, height, left handed

Acquired Traits
Learned skills Playing a sport, riding a bike, playing a musical instrument

Behavioral Traits
Instinctual actions Nest building and migration

Vocabulary
Genotype
The particular alleles (genes) an individual carries They are inherited from your biological parents Genes control your traits

Phenotype
An individuals observable traits
What people can SEE when they look at you

Vocabulary
An individual with non-identical alleles of a gene is heterozygous for that gene
Examples: Bb, Tt, Aa

An individual with identical alleles of a gene is homozygous for that gene

Examples: BB or bb, TT or tt

Vocabulary
An allele is dominant if its effect masks the effect of a recessive allele paired with it
Capital letters (A) signify dominant alleles; lowercase letters (a) signify recessive alleles Homozygous dominant (AA) Homozygous recessive (aa) Heterozygous (Aa)

What are some of YOUR inherited physical traits?

Detached (EE, Ee) or attached (ee) Earlobes

Can Tongue Roll (TT, Tt) or Cant (tt)

Dimples (DD, Dd) No Dimples (dd)

Right (RR, Rr) or Left (rr) handed?

Freckles (FF, Ff) No Freckles (ff)

Curly (HH, Hh) or Straight (hh)

Cleft Chin (CC, Cc) or No Cleft (cc)

Allergies (AA, Aa) or No Allergies (aa)

Hand Clasp Right over Left?

Normal (BB, Bb) Color Blindness (bb)

Can you see the number inside the circle?
If you cannot, you may be colorblind

Widows Peak (WW, Ww) or Straight (ww)

Sometimes People Mistakenly Assume

More common traits are better.

But Actually
Traits simply turn up more frequently in the human population sometimes.

Your special combination of traits makes you uniquedifferentYOU!

Sometimes People Mistakenly Assume

Dominant traits are more common than recessive traits.

But Actually
Frequency has very little to do with whether a trait is dominant or recessive. A dominant trait is not necessarily more common. A recessive trait is not necessarily rare in a population.

Review
_______ are observable characteristics that are passed down from parent to child. Every organism has a set of instructions for specifying its characteristics. ________ is the passage of these instructions from one generation to another.