Genetics & Inheritance Lab

Pre-Lab Exercise Name _______________________

1. Define the following terms:

a. Genetic trait:

b. Gene:

c. Allele:

d. Genotype:

e. Phenotype:

f. Homozygous

g. Heterozygous

h. Dominant:

i. Recessive:

2. Describe how you will "mate" in Part II of the exercise.

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Genetics & Inheritance Lab
Work in groups of two

This lab is designed to demonstrate genetics, or the study of how heritable characteristics are passed from
generation to generation. Genetic traits are determined by genes, or small segments of DNA carried on
chromosomes that determine physical characteristics. This exercise demonstrates how different alleles of the
same gene segregate and reassort (separate and come together) in a population.

Summary of Activities
B. Tongue Rolling: The ability to roll the tongue
1. Demonstrate some of Mendel’s principles of upward from the sides is a dominant trait. For
genetics by simulating different types of mating some reason, people who exhibit this trait seem
crosses. to think it is a desirable thing to do. As far as
2. Examine at the effect of natural selection on the anyone knows, tongue rolling has no obvious
frequency of alleles in a population. anatomical or physiological advantage or
3. Observe some single-gene genetic traits in disadvantage.
humans.
C. Widow's Peak: A distinctive downward point
of the frontal hairline is a dominant trait known
§ as a widow's peak. If you have a straight
hairline, you are recessive for this trait.
I. Human Genetic Traits
D. Free Earlobes: Free earlobes are dominant over
Some human traits exhibit the simple dominant and
attached earlobes. Read the introduction to
recessive behavior of a monohybrid cross
Chapter 9 for an explanation of how this trait is
similar to Mendel's peas. However, the
produced during fetal development.
expression of many other human traits, like skin
color or height, is much more complex and the E. Eye Color: Brown pigmented irises are
genetics cannot be easily studied. We will look dominant. The absence of brown pigment
at a few easily observed human genetic traits to results in blue eyes, which is recessive. Hazel or
illustrate the simple dominant-recessive green eye color is the result of a second gene
relationship between alleles in humans. that produces a yellow pigment. Hazel eyes
have both brown and yellow iris pigment, while
Gene frequencies for a population will not green eyes have both the recessive blue iris and
necessarily show the same dominant/recessive dominant yellow pigment. For our purposes,
ratios that you see for the offspring of a specific
assess only the presence of absence of brown
mating pair. When we calculate gene frequency,
pigment.
it is unlikely that we will have a 3:1 ratio of
dominant traits to recessive traits. In our case, it F. Facial Dimples: Dimples, or indentations, at
is probably due more to small sample size than the corner of the mouth are a dominant trait.
anything else. If you had a large immediate
family to survey, these should segregate in a G. PTC Tasting: The ability to taste the chemical
more classically Mendelian fashion. phenylthiocarbamide, or PTC, is a dominant
trait. Place a piece of PTC paper on the back of
1. Mark your appropriate phenotype for each trait your tongue. If you can detect this chemical, it
on the chart. will have a bitter taste. If the paper does not
taste nasty to you, then you are recessive for this
2. Record the data for the class. trait.
A. Mid-digital Hair: The presence of hair on the
H. Hitchhiker's Thumb: The ability to bend the
middle joint of the finger is a dominant trait.
Hair may not be present on all of your fingers, thumb backward at least 45o is a dominant trait.
but if you have hair on even one finger, you are The proper term for this is distal
dominant. hyperextensibility.

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I. Relative Length of the Big Toe: If your big toe
is shorter than your second toe, you are
dominant for this trait. B. F2 Generation:

J. Palmaris Longus Muscle: The presence of this This mating involves self-fertilization of the first
muscle is a dominant genetic trait. If you have generation produced by the first cross.
this muscle you will have three wrist tendons.
To determine this, clench your fist tightly and 1. Each person will now have the genotype of the
flex your hand toward you. If you can see or F1 offspring.
feel three tendons in your wrist, you have the
long palmar muscle and are dominant. If you 2. Mate with your lab partner 10 times to produce
have only two tendons, then you are recessive ten offspring. Record the genotypes of your
for this trait. offspring in Table 1.

II. Mendelian Genetics: Monohybrid Crosses 3. Report your results to the class and determine
the class total for each genotype.
A monohybrid cross is the genetic transmission of a
single trait. For this exercise, each person will
receive colored beads that represent different III. The Gene Pool: Allele Frequency
alleles of a gene. Red will represent the allele
for the dominant characteristic (designated in Allele frequency refers to how often a particular
writing as “A”), while yellow will represent the allele appears in a population. Evolution can be
allele for the recessive characteristic (written as defined as a change in the frequency of alleles
"a"). The combination of two beads determines over time. The allele frequency for a given trait
the genotype. Since gametes contain only one changes over time in response to changes in the
copy of each gene, a single bead also represents environment. At the beginning of the quarter
a gamete. you saw how natural selection influenced
changes in the frequency of a particular
You will “mate” (exchange gametes) with your lab phenotype. This exercise will illustrate how
partner and determine the genotypes and natural selection influences genotype.
phenotypes of the offspring that result from each
mating, or “cross”. A. How To Calculate Allele Frequency

A. F1 Generation: Think of a population as a pool of genes instead of

individuals, as though each of the individuals
1. For the first mating you will have a homozygous pulled out his or her genes and threw them in a
genotype. One lab partner will use two red big pot.
beads, representing the dominant genotype. The
other lab partner will use two yellow beads, Suppose we have a population of 100 individuals:
representing the recessive genotype.
• 25 of which are "AA"
2. Mate with your lab partner by shaking your • 50 of which are "Aa"
beads in your cupped hands and selecting one • 25 of which are "aa"
without looking. Pair it with your partner's
randomly chosen allele; these two beads This population contains 200 total alleles, because
represent the two alleles carried by your 100 individuals with 2 alleles each = 200 alleles
offspring. Record the genotype of your total.
offspring in Table 1 of the attached data sheet.
Counting up all the "A's" in the population, we find
3. Mate with your lab partner 9 more times to there are 100 because:
produce a total of 10 offspring. Record the
genotype of each offspring in Table 1. 2 X 25 = 50 "AA"
+ 1 X 50 = 50 "Aa"
4. Report your results to the class and determine 100 "A" genes
the class total for each genotype.
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Allele frequency of "A" is 100/200 = 0.5
(or 50%).

Similarly, the allele frequency for "a" in this

population is 0.5 (or 50%).

B. Selection against the aa genotype

We have just seen how two alleles of the same gene

can be passed on if both genes have an equal
chance of surviving. Now we will demonstrate
what happens to allele frequency when there is a
selective disadvantage to a particular genotype.
In particular, genotype “aa” causes a fatal
disease which results in death during childhood.

1. Everyone will begin with a heterozygous

genotype. (Everyone is healthy, but carries a
recessive gene for the disease.) Record your
initial genotype on the first line of Table 3.

2. Instead of mating with your lab partner, roam

around the room and find another person in the
class AT RANDOM (without respect to charm,
appearance, or even gender) to mate with. Mate
twice. These two offspring will replace you and
your partner in the next generation. If one
offspring has the genotype is "aa", it dies. One
of you cannot reproduce again. If both offspring
are “aa”, then neither of you can reproduce
again. Record your offspring's genotype in
Table 3.

Stop at this point until everyone in the class has

finished mating.

3. You will now assume the identity of your

offspring and take on its genotype. Remember, if
you were aa, you cannot mate again. If you are
“AA” or “Aa”, replace your beads with the
appropriate colors.

4. Find a new partner to mate with and produce

two offspring. Record the genotypes. Again, if
you produce an "aa" offspring, you cannot mate
in the next generation.

5. Repeat the mating four more until a total of six

generations have been completed.

6. Report your results to the class and record the

class results in Table 4. Calculate the allele
frequencies for each generation based on the
class results.

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Genetics & Inheritance Lab
Data Sheets Name _____________________
I. Human Genetic Traits. Table 1: The dominant trait is the first listed of each pair.
Trait Your Phenotype Class Data

Mid-digital Hair

No Mid-digital Hair

Tongue Rolling

No Tongue Rolling

Widow's Peak

Straight Hairline

Free Earlobes

Attached Earlobes

Brown Eye Color

Blue Eye Color

Dimples

No Dimples

PTC Taster

Non-Taster

Hitchhiker's Thumb

Straight Thumb

Longer Second Toe

Longer Big Toe

Palmaris Longus Muscle

Two Wrist Tendons

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II. Monohybrid Cross:
Make a hatch mark to keep count of each genotype that is produced during your matings.

Table 2

Number of Offspring
Genotype of Mating Homozygous Dominant Heterozygous Homozygous Recessive
Pair: AA X aa (AA) (Aa) (aa)
No. of your F1
offspring:
No. of your F2
offspring:
Total No. of class F1
offspring:

Total No. of class F2

offspring:

Your genotypic ratio:

Class’s genotypic ratio:

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 III. Natural Selection Against the Recessive Phenotype
Table 3: Your Individual Genotypes

Your Genotype

Original Genotype

Genotype of 1st Generation

Genotype of 2nd Generation

Genotype of 3rd Generation

Genotype of 4th Generation

Genotype of 5th Generation

Genotype of 6th Generation

Table 4: Class Genotypes

No. of people with genotypes: No. of Individual Alleles Allele Frequency
AA Aa aa A a A a
Original
Genotype
Genotype of 1st
Generation
Genotype of 2nd
Generation
Genotype of 3rd
Generation
Genotype of 4th
Generation
Genotype of 5th
Generation
Genotype of 6th
Generation

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Genetics & Inheritance Lab
Lab Report

1) (2 pts) Hand in all data tables

I. Human Genetic Traits

2) Is it always the case that more people in a population will have the dominant trait over the
recessive trait? Why or why not? Use your data to support your answer.
3) How closely did your individual data match the class data?

II. Mendelian Genetics: Monohybrid Crosses

4) Why did all the F1 individuals look the same?
5) What happened to the recessive trait from parental Æ F1 Æ F2 generations?
6) How close were your group’s F2 generation data and the class data to the expected ratio?
What could you have done to make these data more accurate?

III. The Gene Pool: Allele Frequency

7) How does the frequency for each allele and each genotype change over the generations?
8) Explain the effect that natural selection appears to have on allele frequency in a population.
9) Why doesn't selection against aa individuals lead to the complete loss of the "a" allele from
the population?