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Unit 9A Inheritance and Selection: Name: .
Unit 9A Inheritance and Selection: Name: .
Year 9:
What is variation?
Living things of the same type belong to the same species. For example, humans are one
species and dogs are another species. Two individuals belonging to different species cannot
normally reproduce together. If they do, their offspring is called a hybrid and it is usually
infertile and unable to reproduce.
Each individual has different characteristics that describe the way he looks like. Differences in
characteristics are called variation. Variation between different species is always greater than
the variation within a species.
1. Describe four of your characteristics.
2. A zorse is the result of mating what two animals?
3. Why is the zorse unable to reproduce?
height
weight
foot length.
Discontinuous variation
A characteristic of any species with only a limited number of categories shows discontinuous
variation. Here are some examples:
gender
eye colour, skin colour, hair colour
lobed or lobeless ears
rolling tongs
right or left-handed
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flower colour in hydrangeas - these plants produce blue flowers in acidic soil and pink
flowers in alkaline soil.
Causes due to climate, accidents, diet, lifestyle, culture,
* State whether the following characteristics are caused by genes, environmental factors or both:
Having blue eyes, having a scar, having naturally curly hair, being very tall, having a cold, being
able to speak French, having thin hair, having tanned skin
Genes
Genes are sections of DNA (Deoxyribonucleic Acid) threads. These DNA threads make up
chromosomes. There are about 23000 different genes in every human cell nucleus.
Note: Changes in genes are called mutations. In Science fiction, mutation can cause super
powers. The Incredible Hulk got his strength due to a mutation caused by nuclear radiation.
Chromosomes are present in pairs (known as homologous pairs), both members have the same
length (and number of genes). One chromosome comes from the father and one chromosome
from the mother.
The diagram showing the 46 chromosomes in a human cell arranged in their homologous pairs.
A pair of the same type of chromosomes will have the same genes. However, the genes may be
slightly different. Different versions of the same gene are called alleles. For example, the alleles
for brown and blue eyes are found on chromosome 15. Scientists think this chromosome has
700-900 genes!
The last 2 chromosomes are called the sex chromosomes which determine the gender of an
individual. If there is an X and a Y then it's the cell from a male, if there are two X's then it's a
female. This cell therefore belongs to a male.
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Some alleles always have an effect and some alleles do not always have an effect. For instance,
people who have the allele with the instruction brown eyes will have brown eyes even if the
other allele for eye colour has the instruction blue eyes. The brown eyes allele is dominant.
The blue eyes allele is recessive. For a recessive allele to have an effect, the alleles on both
the chromosomes must be recessive.
Diagram E shows the possible eye colours of children born to parents who have different eye
colours. We use letters to represent the alleles. Dominant alleles have a capital letter and
recessive alleles have a small version of the same letter. So, the brown eyes allele is B and the
blue eyes allele is b.
Sometimes alleles can cause genetic diseases. Cystic fibrosis is a genetic disease that
damages the lungs and makes digesting food very difficult.
Fertilisation
Sex cells (or gametes) are specialised to transfer genes from parents to offspring. The nuclei of
gametes only contain half the chromosomes of normal cells. In fertilisation one sperm cell enters
an ovum (egg cell). The two nuclei fuse to form a nucleus with a complete set of genes.
The fertilised egg cell contains genes from both parents, and so the offspring inherits
characteristics from both parents. Brothers and sisters look different because a persons
gametes all contain a slightly different mix of their genes.
Each fertilised egg cell grows by cell division and forms an embryo. If cells in an early embryo
(zygote) split apart, identical twins are formed.
There are two types of cell division: Mitosis and Meiosis. Generally speaking, the cell division
concerned with genetics is Meiosis and this will take place in the sex organs. Mitosis takes place
in other areas and is concerned with growth, replacement of dead cells and repair of tissues.
Selective breeding
Selective breeding, also called artificial selection, involves people taking charge of selection
to produce new varieties of various species. Just as plants have different varieties, a species of
animal can have different breeds.
Different breeds of an animal may be mated with each other to produce offspring with
characteristics from both breeds. This is called cross-breeding.
Suppose you wanted a variety of cow that produced a lot of milk. This is what you could do:
choose or select the cows in your herd that produce the most milk
only let these cows reproduce
select the offspring that produce the most milk
only let these offspring reproduce
keep repeating the process of selection and breeding until you achieve your goal.
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The key here is to identify the feature you want, and only breed from the individuals that have
that feature. Here are some examples of what selective breeding can produce:
Asexual reproduction
Asexual reproduction only requires one parent, unlike sexual reproduction, which needs two.
Since there is only one parent, the offspring are genetically identical to that parent, and to each
other. They are clones.
Plants
Asexual reproduction in plants can take a number of forms. Many develop underground food
storage organs that later develop into the following years plants. Potato plants and daffodil
plants do this, for example.
Daffodil bulb
Some plants produce side branches with plantlets on them. Busy Lizzy does this. Others, such
as strawberry plants, produce runners with plantlets on them.
Animals
Asexual reproduction in animals is less common than sexual reproduction. It happens in sea
anemones and starfish, for example.
Cloning
Natural and artificial
Twins are genetically identical because they are formed after one fertilised egg cell splits into two
cells. They are natural clones. It is possible to make clones artificially. The cloning of animals has
many important commercial implications. It allows an individual animal with desirable features, such
as a cow that produces a lot of milk, to be duplicated several times.
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Embryo transplants
A developing embryo is removed from a pregnant animal at an early stage, before its cells have had
time to become specialised. The cells are separated, grown for a while in a laboratory, and then
transplanted into host mothers.
When the offspring are born, they are identical to each other, and to the original pregnant animal.
They are not identical to their host mothers, because they contain different genetic information.
Stem cells
During the development of an embryo, the cells become specialised. They cannot later change
to become a different type of cell. But stem cells can grow into any type of cell found in the body.
They are not specialised. Stem cells can be removed from human embryos that are a few days
old - for example, from unused embryos left over from fertility treatment.
Here are some of the things stem cells could be used for:
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You may wish to view this BBC News item from 2007 about a British research team that has,
for the first time, grown human heart valves from stem cells.
Therapeutic cloning
If you were to receive medical treatment with cells grown from stem cells, your bodys immune
system would recognise the cells as foreign, and they would be rejected and die. But this would
not happen if you received cells with the same genes as you. This could be done by cloning one
of your cells to produce an embryo, then taking stem cells from this. This is called therapeutic
cloning. Here are the steps involved:
GM Animals
The spidergoats produce spider silk in their milk. They have been genetically modified.
Scientists took the spider silk gene from a golden orb weaver spider and managed to put it into
the DNA of a goat. This goat was then cloned. The goats are milked and the spider silk is used
to make BioSteel a material that is much lighter and stronger than steel.
Spiderman gained his powers when bitten by a radioactive spider, which caused genetic
modification. Spidergoats however, cant swing from buildings.
* Design your own genetically modified superhero.
GM Plants
Scientists have created genetically modified (GM) sweet corn that kills insects that normally eat
it, GM tomatoes that last a long time and GM rice that contains lots of vitamin A. Some people
think that growing and eating GM plants could be dangerous because GM plants have genes
that they do not naturally contain.
Carrots used to be white or purple. They are orange today because a sixteenth century Dutch
plant breeder selectively bred carrots from plants with a mutation that made them orange the
colour of the Dutch Royal family.
List one benefit and one drawback of using:
a) selective breeding
b) genetic modification
c) cloning
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Q1
Q3
Q5
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Q7
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Q8
Q9
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Q 10
Q 11
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Q 12
Q 13
* Use the books or the Internet to find what breeders might look for when breeding plants.
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Q 14
Q 15
The sentences are about how plant breeders move pollen from one plant to another.
Put them in the correct order.
Use a paint brush to transfer pollen from the chosen plant to the mature stigma. ________
Wait for the stigma to mature. _________
Remove the anthers before they burst and release their pollen. _________
Cover the flower with a pollen-proof bag. ________
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