Today is 11 January 2011 -- What do we need to know about Genetics?

Here are the California Standards for Genetics. We will not be studying each and every detail, but this gives you an idea of what topics there are within the subject area that students throughout California learn about.

2. Mutation and sexual reproduction lead to genetic variation in a population. As a basis for understanding this concept:

a. Students know meiosis is an early step in sexual reproduction in which the pairs of chromosomes separate and segregate randomly during cell division to produce gametes containing one chromosome of each type.

b. Students know only certain cells in a multicellular organism undergo meiosis.

c. Students know how random chromosome segregation explains the probabilitythat a particular allele will be in a gamete.

d. Students know new combinations of alleles may be generated in a zygote through the fusion of male and female gametes (fertilization).

e. Students know why approximately half of an individual’s DNA sequence comes from each parent.

f. Students know the role of chromosomes in determining an individual’s sex.

g. Students know how to predict possible combinations of alleles in a zygote from the genetic makeup of the parents.

3. A multicellular organism develops from a single zygote, and its phenotype depends on its genotype, which is established at fertilization. As a basis for understanding this concept:

a. Students know how to predict the probable outcome of phenotypes in a genetic cross from the genotypes of the parents and mode of inheritance (autosomal or X-linked, dominant or recessive).

b. Students know the genetic basis for Mendel’s laws of segregation and independent assortment.

c.* Students know how to predict the probable mode of inheritance from a pedigree diagram showing phenotypes.

d.* Students know how to use data on frequency of recombination at meiosis to estimate genetic distances between loci and to interpret genetic maps of chromosomes.

4. Genes are a set of instructions encoded in the DNA sequence of each organism that specify the sequence of amino acids in proteins characteristic of that organism. As a basis for understanding this concept:

a. Students know the general pathway by which ribosomes synthesize proteins, using tRNAs to translate genetic information in mRNA.

b. Students know how to apply the genetic coding rules to predict the sequence of amino acids from a sequence of codons in RNA.

c. Students know how mutations in the DNA sequence of a gene may or may not affect the expression of the gene or the sequence of amino acids in an encoded protein.

d. Students know specialization of cells in multicellular organisms is usually due to different patterns of gene expression rather than to differences of the genes themselves.

e. Students know proteins can differ from one another in the number and sequence of amino acids.

f.* Students know why proteins having different amino acid sequences typically have different shapes and chemical properties.

5. The genetic composition of cells can be altered by incorporation of exogenous DNA into the cells. As a basis for understanding this concept:

a. Students know the general structures and functions of DNA, RNA, and protein.

b. Students know how to apply base-pairing rules to explain precise copying of DNA during semiconservative replication and transcription of information from DNA into mRNA.

c. Students know how genetic engineering (biotechnology) is used to produce novel biomedical and agricultural products.

d.* Students know how basic DNA technology (restriction digestion by endonucleases, gel electrophoresis, ligation, and transformation) is used to construct recombinant DNA molecules.

e.* Students know how exogenous DNA can be inserted into bacterial cells to alter their genetic makeup and support expression of new protein products.