PART 1: MENDEL’S LAW OF INHERITANCE

• GENETICS is the study of how genes and how traits are passed down from one generation to the next.
• ·       Genes – physical and functional unit of heredity
• ·       Allele – variations of genes
• ·       Genome – set of DNA molecules
• ·       Heredity or Inheritance – process of passing down of traits from a parent to offspring
• ·       Variation – raw material for evolution to occur: allows speciation
• ·       Punnett square - table that displays all possible outcomes of a genetic cross between two individuals with known genotype
• Traits are basically your phenotype. They include things like hair color, height, and eye color. Alleles are versions of genes. They are what directly specify what traits you have
• ·       Phenotype – physical traits; not all are inherited; can be observable or not
• Genotype – genomic makeup; inherited
• ·       Dominant allele – depicted by a capital letter, masks recessive
• ·       Recessive allele – depicted by a small letter; can be seen when two alleles are recessive
• Non-observable phenotype: mental health disease
• ·       Homozygous – same
• ·       Heterozygous – different
• ·       Homozygous dominant (AA)

  ·       Homozygous recessive (aa)

  ·       Heterozygous dominant (Aa)
• Phenylketonuria (PKU)

  ·       Depicted by a genotype of “pp”

  ·       In born error of metabolic pathway

  ·      Symptoms: Light-skinned pigmentation & mental retardation