Lecture 1

Question 1

What is genetics?

Answer 1

The study of variation between and among living things, and how this variation is inherited

Question 2

What is a genotype?

Answer 2

it is fixed, describes the genetic consitiution of an organism, comes from a parent if haploid or parents if diploid

Question 3

What is a phenotype?

Answer 3

describes the morphological, biochemical and behavioural properties of an organism resulting from a specific genotype and it’s interaction with the envrionment

Question 4

What is a genome?

Answer 4

total amount of genetic material (DNA) in a chromosome set –> they have worked out the order of ad, thy, cyt, gu in humans. –>humans have two genomes - nuclear and mitochondrial

Question 5

What is a gene?

Answer 5

The fundamental physical and functional unit of heredity, which carries information from one generation to the next - a segment of DNA

Question 6

Examples of environmental variation

Answer 6

Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (a collection of symptoms): - growth retardation, charctaristic facial features, intellectual impairment

Question 7

Examples of genetic variation

Answer 7

• Blood group

- Huntington Disease (42 repeats or more)

Question 8

Examples of a combination of environmental and genetic factors

Answer 8

same genotype but has been modified by environment: - temperature
- pH of soil on Hydrangea
- gene switching on and off
No change to Gene

Question 9

What is Epigenetic change?

Answer 9

a change in gene expression without changing the DNA code

Question 10

Varients that affect health

Answer 10

Cystic fibrosis
Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome
Albinism