IUBio

Help on genetic structure, please

LIzz Hancock vbow6161 at ou.edu
Wed Mar 13 17:01:21 EST 2002


"> > Hi.
> > I'm a university student in the science of religion, and I am getting into
> > sociobiology. But I need some help on some topics/elements in the cell
> > structure, that I don't understand. So I hope some of you would help me,
> > please?
> > What is:
> > - Phenotypes?  What the organism looks like.  White, tall, short, 2 heads ect.
> > - Genotypes?   What DNA/genes it has.  For example-people with xxy sex chromosomes (instead of xy) look normal, but their genotype is abnormal.
> > - Dominant genes?  Only 1 form of the gene called an allele is required to display the trait. You always have 2 copies of each gene (except the sex chromosomes for men) but they can be of different forms.  For example to have brown eyes you only need one copy of the brown eye gene to have brown eyes--BB or Bb. You get 1 from you mom and 1 from your father--so you have 2 alleles(copies) of all your genes.  
 > > - Recessive genes?  Both copies must be recessive to display the trait.  For example to have blue eyes you must be the genotype bb, if you're Bb your eyes will be brown not blue.  So to have blue eyes, one of your parents has to have had blue eyes.
> > - Pleiotropic?  This just means "of many forms"  For example some bacteria are pleiotrophic, they come in all shapes--no specific shape is standard.
> > - Polygenetic?  Means "many genes"  

A good place to get info is to use the search engine Google under the advanced search option.  www.google.com Just type in the word or phrase you're looking for, you can even specify Dutch--if you wish.

> >
> > I really hope that some of you guys could give me some help here....or
> some
> > suggestions to, where I can read on the topic in a VERY paedagogic way?
> > I would be glad if some of you know something on Sociobiology, too - and
> > could give me an "easy" introduction to it!
> > Thanks a lot...regards
> > /Mads Hammer from Denmark
> > --

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://iubio.bio.indiana.edu/bionet/mm/microbio/attachments/20020313/8c9bc002/attachment.html


More information about the Microbio mailing list

Send comments to us at biosci-help [At] net.bio.net