Create-a-Baby Review

For the past two weeks in Biology we have been working on genetics. Today we were assigned to create a baby. We got a sheet of paper that has physical traits, for example: cheek dimples, eye shape, face shape...etc, and we had to partner up with a guy or a girl. If you were a girl you had to have a guy partner. If you were a guy you had to have a girl partner. Once we had partners we started to work on the worksheet handed out to us by the teacher. But since I was absent I ended up being partnered with another girl who was absent.


To the right is the worksheet we received to do this creative lab.



This worksheet we used shows the genotype and phenotype of the baby it also shows the genotype of the parents. Genotypes are the genetic makeup of an organism or group of organisms with reference to a single trait, set of traits, or an entire complex of traits, for example a girls gender is portrayed as xx and a guys gender is portrayed as xy or xyy, that is a genotype. The phenotype is the observable constitution of an organism. For example you see a girl and she, of course, looks female. An easier way to explain phenotype is the visible trait of a person. For example let's say you have freckles and you know you have freckles. A person sees your freckles and can tell that you have them. The genotype would either be Ff or FF. You would not know the genotype unless you get yourself tested. The big "F" represents the dominant trait, the trait that will have the higher probability of getting passed down to your kid/kids. The little "f" represents the recessive trait, the trait that has a lesser probability of being passed down.
Now let's take a look at the worksheet. The worksheet had many phenotypes for me and my partner work with. We had to either decide if we had the trait or not. For example my partner has small lips and I have big lips. Since my partner had small lips he had to write down "ll" and since I had big lips, I had to flip a coin to see what I needed to right down. I had two choices; one choice: "LL" or "Ll." I chose heads for "LL" and tails for "Ll." I flipped the coin and it landed on heads. I had to write down "LL." Once my partner and I got our genotypes we now had to figure out what our baby's geno and pheno type would be. Since I had the dominant "L," I pass one of those on. My partner has two little "l's"so he passes on a little "l." The baby ended up with "Ll" as the genotype.  The baby's phenotype is "big lips." We continued to do the same thing until we got to the hair color, skin color and eye color. Once we got to the hair color and that we had to do things a little differently. Every bodies skin, hair and eye color are made up of two genes instead of one. We started with hair color and since both our hair was brown we needed to flip a coin to see what genes we got. We had two choices, they are: "Rr SS" or "Rr Ss." Heads was "Rr SS," tails was "Rr Ss." I  flipped the coin first and it ended up "Rr SS." My partner flipped the coin and it ended up "Rr Ss." Now we had to flip for the baby. We flipped for each gene and the baby ended up with "Rr Ss," the baby had brown hair. We continued to do the same with skin and eyes. Once we finished all the geno and pheno types, we had to now draw the babies. I'll show you a picture of my baby I had to draw.

Since we were short one time me and my partner didn't name our baby this is her in her teen years.As for a name i'll call her Kira.

Once we finished the baby lab on the back of the worksheet we had to answer questions and find definitions. 

Below are the word we had to define and below them will be the questions we had to answer. 

Genetics Vocabulary:

Chromosome: Any of several thread-like bodies. 

Codominant: having both alles expressed equally in the phenotype of the organism.

Diploid: Having two similar complements of chromosomes.

Haploid: Pertaining to a single set of chromosomes.

Meiosis: Part of the process of gamete formation.

Recombination: The formation of new combinations  of genes, either naturally, by crossing over or independent assortment. 

Questions:

1) What was the probability  that you and your partner would produce a boy? A girl? 

         The probability of it being a boy was 50-50 because I was xx and my partner is xy. I think the probability will be the same for the girl as well. 

2) Explain how it is possible for your baby to have a visible trait that neither you nor your partner have.

          I could of had a dominant and recessive gene and he could have had two dominant genes, giving the baby the visible trait. 

3) If you and your partner repeated this exercise and produced another imaginary baby, do you think it would look just the same as the one you produced already? Explain.

         No the second child would look different because each kid has different genes than the other.

4) A women who is heterozygous for the chin dimple trait (Cc) marries a man without a chin dimple (cc). What are the possible genotypes (not visible) and phenotypes (visible) of their children. 

           The baby's genotype will be either cc or Cc, meaning they can have it or they won't have it.  

5) What is the probability that the man and women discussed in the preceding paragraph will have a baby with a chin dimple?

           There is about a 50-50 chance of their children receiving the chin dimple or not receiving the chin dimple because the mom is heterozygous.

6) A man and a women who are both heterozygous for two traits, the cheek dimple and the chin dimple traits, get married. What is the probability that they will have a baby that has cheek dimples, but not a chin dimple? 

          The probability of having a cheek dimple and not a chin dimple is about even since the parents are both heterozygous and neither one of them is homozygous. 

7) What is the probability that a man with dark blonde hair and a women with red hair will have a baby with brown hair?

          For the baby to have brown hair the chances are about 75-25 because the man has dark blonde hair and the mom had red. Using a punnet square helps figure this out more.  I used "Bb" to represent dark blonde. I used "Rr" to represent red. As you can the the child had a 75% probability of having brown hair. If you look at the top left corner, those are two dominant genes and below that one ( bottom left)  had only one dominant gene. Same with the one on the top right. The bottom right is two recessive genes meaning the baby or child is less likely to receive that set of genes. 

BR		Rb
	Br	rb

I hope you enjoyed our little lab on babies and genetics, I sure did!