Genetics Vocab
Terms
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- Genetics
- The study of heredity. Of how traits are passed from generation to generation
- Genes
- The structural and functional unit of genetics
- Properties of a gene
- Genes can change, Genes can be expressed, Genes can move from one chromosome to another
- Transmission genetics
- The most basic approach, it studies how observable traits are passed from generation to generation. Studied by direct observation (like Mendel did) or by pedigree analyses
- Cytogenetics
- Study of chromosome number and structure, and their link to abnormalities. Main tool: Karyotypes
- Molecular genetics
- It uses recombinant DNA technology to identify, analyze, and manipulate genes
- Population genetics
- It studies distributions of genes and gene variants (alleles) in populations and their relation to evolution
- Basic research
- to understand a process or a phenomenon; how things work
- Applied research
- Solving real practical problems using the knowledge from basic research
- Eugenics
- Claim: The social, intellectual , and economic level of humans can be improved by selecting breeding (!!!), to save resources and lessen human suffering
- Eugenics and reproductive rights
- Acts were passed requiring sterilization of those who were genetically, morally, or intellectually “inferiorâ€
- Impact of genetics today
- The study of the human genome and other complete genomes gave rise to the field of genomics, Biotechnology, GMO's
- Mendel’s First law
- Principle of segregation- ‘Factors’ segregate during gamete formation so each gamete receives only one of the ‘factors’ (genes) that controls the trait.
- Mendel's Second Law
- The principle of independent assortment- alleles from one trait segregate independently from alleles in the other trait
- locus
- Each gene is located in a specific site
- 1903
- Walter Sutton and Theodore Boveri independently proposed that genes are located in chromosomes
- Incomplete dominance
- There are cases, like snapdragons, where the F1 heterozygotes actually have a different phenotype than the parental individuals
- codominance
- When both alleles in a heterozygote are fully expressed
- Epistasis
- when the action of a gene masks the expression of an unrelated gene
- pedigree
- A line of ancestors; a lineage.
- cystic fibrosis
- is a hereditary disease affecting the exocrine (mucus) glands of the lungs, liver, pancreas, and intestines, causing progressive disability due to multisystem failure.
- Marfan syndrome
- a genetic disorder of the connective tissue
- X-linked traits
- traits that are passed on from parents to offspring on the X chromosome