Exercise 1: Phenotypic Variation in Organisms

Allele

- Alternative form of gene found in gene locus

Variation

- Basic quality of living things

- Provides identity of individual species yet it maintains the characteristics that relate it with
others of its own kind
- May be physiological
o Inability to produce melanin called albinism
o Deficiency of insulin known as diabetes
o May also be behavioral
Migration or nesting habits of birds
- Variation may determine genotype of species

Phenotype

- Expresses genes will give rise to this

- May be morphological
- Shapes, texture, color

Exercise 2: Physical Basis of Heredity

Cell

- Basic structural and physiological unit of the body of an organism

- All cells carry genetic info (whether eukaryotic or prokaryotic)
- Genetic info carried in chromosomes
o Chromosomes replicated and distributed to daughter cells during cell division

Cell Cycle

- Cell growing and reproducing following a cycle and metabolic activities that is regular and
repetitive known as the cell cycle
Cell Cycle divided into 2

a. Interphase
a. Cell grows and
replicates its
chromosomes
b. Cell Division Phase
a. Mitosis or meiosis
b. Actual cell divides
c. Mitosis results
i. Equal distribution of
chromosomes to
daughter cells from
the parent cell
 d. Meiosis
i. Results in reduction into half othe number of chromosomes received by the
daughter cells from parent cell

- Stages of Cell division will be observed in the following slides:

o Allium cepa root tip
o Zea mays sporogenesis
o Whitefish blastula
o Grasshoppers testis

Exercise 3: Reproductive Cycles

Fertilization

- Union of male and female nuclei during fertilization

 - Single cell where multicellular organisms originate from
- Produces diploid (2n) nucleus
o body cells carry on mitosis

Cells of the same species do not carry the same genetic info.

Genetics of individual

- show great variability in chromosomal combinations

- variability achieved through meiosis
o in meiosis there is the crossing over and redistribution of chromosomes

Reproductive Cycle

- Variabilities achieved through:

o Exchange of chromosomal segments
o Random reshuffling of chromosomes
o Redistribution of chromosomes

3 Types of Life Cycles

- Haplobiontic diploid
o Involving one type of parent/adult such as diploid or 2N individual
o Produces gametes through gametic meiosis
- Haplobiontic, haploid
o Involves one type of parent/adult that is haploid (n)
o Produces gametes by mitosis
- Haplodiplobiontic, diploid-haploid (D, d-h)
o Involves two types of parents/adults
o One life stage is diploid
o Sporophyte (2N) produces spores through meiosis
o Haploid spores germinate into a gametophyte (N) that produces gametes through
mitosis

Haplontic (Haplobiontic)

- Exhibited by lower plants

 - Isogamous type of generation (isogamy)
o Gametes formed are identical
- Anisogamous type of generation (oogamy)
o Adult forms male and female in the form of egg and sperm

Haplodiplontic Life Stages

- Indicate alternation of generation in adult form

- May exist in both diploid and haploid