Genes and Behaviour- Week Eight Flashcards
What did Medel do?
He started the scientific study of heritability
Didn’t know what a gene was
Looked at pea plant characteristics
What are dichotomous traits?
Occur in one form or the other, never in combination
E.g red or white leaves
What 3 laws did Medel’s observations show him?
Law of segregation
Law of dominance
Law of independent assortment
What is the Law of segregation
one set of alleles from each parent
What is the Law of dominance
if different information is given the ‘dominant’ allele will be expressed
What is the Law of independent assortment
traits are mixed
What has been discovered since Mendel?
meiosis and chromosomes
crossover and recombinantion
concept of gene
identified the double helix structure
What was the human genome project?
to identify the genes which make us prone to diseases
found many DNA variant which correlate with certain diseases lie near non-coding functional DNA elements
What is a genotype
Genetic coding which is irrespective of expression
What is phenotype
Physical characteristic or behavioural trait of the genotype
What is heritability?
Portion of the entire variation in a group of individuals that is accounted for by genetic variation
What is the scale of heritability?
(0) 0% all variation is caused by the environment
(1) 100% all variation is caused by genetics
What are the different research methods for behavioural genetics?
Twin/family studies
Adoption studies
What do twin/family studies show us about behavioural genetics?
compares the similarities in relatives
similar/varied genetics and similar environments
What do adoption studies show us about behavioural genetics?
either compare no genetic similarities
or no environmental similarities
