Gen Bio 2 3rd Quarter Assessment

• Who is Gregor Mendel?

  Gregor Mendel is known as the father of modern genetics.
• Gregor Mendel – Austrian Monk, born in the Czech Republic in 1822. He is the son of a peasant farmer, studied Theology, and was ordained priest Order St, Augustine. He went to the University of Vienna, studied botany, and learned the scientific method. In 1866, he published “Experiments in Plant Hybridization, " establishing his Three Principles of Inheritance.
• Mendel's Third Principle (Law) - When an organism receives two different versions of a particular gene, it will express only one version at a time. This principle is also called the Law of Dominance
• Law of Segregation


  Each parent contributes one allele to their offspring, which segregates during gamete formation.
• Law of Independent Assortment


  Alleles from different genes are inherited independently of each other.
• 5 Stages of Genetic Engineering

  • Isolation
  • Cutting
  • Ligation and Insertion
  • Transformation
  • Expression
• Isolation - 1) gene of interest/virus 2) plasmid
• Cutting - the restriction sites using restriction enzymes are cut out of the DNA.
• Ligation and Insertion - using DNA ligase to re-join fragments of DNA forming recombinant DNA.
• Transformation - inserting a new gene into a bacterial cell by using a vector or plasmid.
• Expression - multiple copies of cells containing genes of interest are produced by transcription and translation of DNA in the nucleus and through binary fission.
• Pharming - altering animals' DNA to produce human proteins for medical use; these proteins are secreted in their milk, eggs, or blood that are then purified and collected.
• Examples of pharming

  • genes to clot blood are used by sheep for Haemophiliacs in their milk.
  • Tracy the sheep produces human enzymes that treat cystic fibrosis.
• Gene Therapy

  • treats faulty genes and prevents, and cures diseases.
  • An example is cystic fibrosis
  • no need for drugs and surgery
  • unknown effects for unborn babies
  • dangerous and difficult
• Xenotransplantation

  • transplantation of cells, tissues, and organs.
  • can cause virus/disease transmission
• Vaccines

  • Genetically modified microbes produce antigens in a safe and controllable way.
  • An example is a genetically engineered yeast cell that can be made into vaccines to treat Hepatitis B.
• Diagnostic Tests

  • specific and sensitive test to figure out one's condition/disease
  • helpful to deliver medicine to a specific target
• Selective Breeding

  • animals and plants
  • mating to produce organisms with desired traits
• Animal Husbandry

  • animals only
  • concerned with the care and production of domestic animals.
  • farming and agriculture.
• Applications of Genetic Engineering

  • disease-resistant crops
  • drought-resistant crops
  • pest-resistant crops like Rainbow Papaya
  • crops that stay ripe for a longer time like Endless Summer Tomato
  • enhancing foods' nutritional value like Golden Rice
  • drugs/vaccines/cure development
• Division of Geological Time Scale?

  Eons, eras, periods, epochs.
• Eons - precambrian and phanerozoic
• Eras - paleozoic, mesozoic, cenozoic.
• Periods - cambrian, ordovician, silurian, devonian, carboniferous, permian, triassic, jurassic, cretaceous.
• Epoch - paleocene, eocene, oligocene, miocene, pliocene, pleistocene, holocene.
• Archaean

  • 3.8 b.y.
  • oldest fossil in Australia is a prokaryotic chain similar to microbes in the Mars meteorite.
• Precambrian

  • stromatolites are layers of calcium carbonate that are formed in warm, shallow seas by photosynthetic activities; evidence of microbial activity during Archaean and Proterozoic.
• Proterozoic

  • oldest eukaryotes in 1.4 b.y. ago
  • 600 m.y. ago - Ediacana fauna are the oldest fossils of larger, multicelled, soft-bodied marine animals.
  • Dickinsoniacostata are worm-like.
  • Mawsonia spriggi are jellyfish-like.
• Late Proterozoic

  • Ediacana fauna are still poorly understood
  • blobs, jellyfish, worms, or other soft-bodied relatives of arthropod.
  • appearance worldwide in strata suggesting of a sudden explosion of soft multicelled forms
  • green algae and bacteria is common in seas
• Cambrian

  • beginning of a period of great diversification
  • higher atmospheric oxygen that affected skeletal biochemicals and supported larger organisms
  • ozone developed at a level that blocked UV radiation
  • eukaryotes invented sexual reproduction
  • hard parts appeared
  • hard external skeletons protected sea urchins, clams, snails, and trilobites from predators
  • soft-bodied animals diversified from Ediacana fauna into Burgess Shale fauna
  • gills, efficient guts, circulatory systems, and other features of advanced life forms developed
• Carboniferous

  • age of amphibians
  • First-winged reptiles and insects
  • widespread forests and swamps
  • 1st seed plants
  • ichthyostega had features like tails and legs that allowed them to move around on land
• invertebrates - fish - amphibians - conifers - reptiles - flowering plants
• Theory of Evolution


  Charles Darwin proposed that species can change over time, that new species come from pre-existing species, and that all species share a common ancestor. 
• Common descent


  The scientific theory that all living organisms on Earth descended from a common ancestor. 
• Charles Darwin: He was the first to propose the theory of evolution by natural selection; in 1859, he published On the Origin of Species– his theory of natural selection to explain how organisms evolve
• Alfred Russel Wallace – He wrote a journal titled “On the Tendency of Varieties to Depart Indefinitely from the Original Type”; species that look almost the same differ in key characteristics because they have been modified through their struggle to survive.