Mendelian Genetics Discussion Questions
Choose one topic and extra credit must be done as well.
Topic 1. Would you want to know? One reason for personal DNA testing is to find out if you are genetically-predisposed to a particular disorder. Armed with that knowledge, you might be able to take countermeasures to prevent the disease, such as more frequent checkups, diet, exercise and so forth. Actor Angelina Jolie, upon learning that she was genetically predisposed to develop breast cancer underwent a double mastectomy.
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Consider the hypothetical case in which such testing shows that you are predisposed to a disorder for which there is no known treatment or preventative, such as Alzheimer’s disease. Would you want to know that, if it were the case? Explain your reasons.
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Topic 2. Dominant and recessive alleles. As you know from Chapter 9, “Mendelian heredity” applies to situations in which a single gene controls a particular trait, and there are two forms of the gene (alleles), a dominant allele and a recessive allele.
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Once in a while, students get the incorrect impression that the the dominant allele is somehow “stronger” than the recessive allele, but that’s very misleading. Explain the actual difference between dominant and recessive alleles.
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Topic 2 Extra Credit Opportunity (up to 3 points). If you incorporate relevant information about the gene product of each allele into your answer, you can earn up to 3 points of extra credit.
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Topic 3. Mendelian heredity for genetic disorders. As you know from Chapter 9, Mendelian heredity doesn’t apply to most human traits. For one thing, most traits are controlled by more than one gene. There are also issues of codominance, incomplete dominance, and pleiotrophy. Yet, Mendelian heredity is still medically relevant.
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Genetic disorders that are due to a mutant allele of one gene typically do follow Mendelian inheritance pattern. Explain why this is so.
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Topic 3 Extra credit opportunity (up to 6 points). If you incorporate relevant information about the gene products of mutant and normal alleles into your answer, you can earn up to 3 points of extra credit. If you incorporate the concept of loss-of-function mutation into your answer, you can earn an additional 3 points of extra credit.
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