Sabrina Lam

Period 2
Advanced Bio

Genetics Baby Lab Conclusion

Sexual reproduction produces variety in offspring by three different ways. The three
ways are by crossing-over, independent assortment and fertilization. Crossing-over is when
random alleles are exchanged when aligning in the middle during meiosis. When exchanged, the
allele (gene) is traded for another allele. Alleles have traits in them which can change the
outcome of offspring.
During Metaphase I, the chromosomes align in the middle. However, where the
chromosomes go is completely random. This is what we call independent assortment. The pairs
can be put in whatever order.
The last way to produce variety is fertilization. There are many possibilities in
fertilization. Fertilization is caused by a random egg and a random sperm. There are many
possible eggs and sperm to already make variety in a baby. However with one egg and one sperm,
there are already four possible outcomes by using a punnett square.
There are also different patterns of inheritance as well. The different patterns of
inheritance are the Mendelian dominance, incomplete dominance, polygenic traits, and sex
determination. The Mendelian dominance states that recessive alleles will always be masked by
dominant alleles. An example of this from our lab is the widows peak. If you get Ww, the
phenotype would be a rounded shape because the W was dominant. I had ww so I had a straight
hairline.
Incomplete dominance is when one allele doesnt completely dominate another allele.
This results in the two alleles being blended. An example of this from our lab is the nose length.
If you get Ll, you will end up with a medium sized nose.
Polygenic traits display a continuous distribution (height, color). The inheritance of
polygenic traits doesnt show the phenotypic ratios like that of the Mendelian dominance, though
each of the genes contributing to the trait is inherited. It is basically when there are several types
of gene pairs that could go with one trait. An example of this from our lab is hair color. There are
many gene pairs that you can use for one trait.
Sex determination is done with two sex chromosomes: XX and XY. All eggs contain one
X chromosome while sperm may contain either an X or a Y chromosome. Depending on which
chromosomes each parent gives will determine the babys gender. If the father gives an X
chromosome, the offspring would be a girl. If the father gives a Y chromosome, the offspring
would be a boy. An example of this from our lab is the coin flip which we used the sides of the
coin to represent X and Y.