ACKNOWLEDGEMENT First and foremost, I express my sinceregratitude and indebtedness to God Almighty for the relentless blessings showered on us. The investigative project gave me a pleasant opportunity to make a real knowledge about various types of phenotypes. I am really proud of the fact that this project is the result of my hard work. With immense pleasure I express my sense of gratitude to our respected Sr.Principal ______for giving us the permission to do this project. I am greatly indebted to my Biology teacher, Smt.______, whose valuable advice and guidance made my task easier and better. I am also indebted to all those who helped me

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to complete this project successfully.

Name: XII

PROJECT UNDERTAKEN

TO CONDUCT SURVEY ON A POPULATION TO2

IDENTIFY VARIOUS PHENOTYPIC CHARACTERS.

CONTENTSPAGE NO

1. Acknowledgements .(1)

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2. Project Undertaken..(2) 3. Aim ..(4) 4. Introduction .(5) 5. Survey Procedure.(6) 6. Observation Table..(10) 7. Self Study Chart.(12) 8. Inference (13) 9. Conclusions ...(14)

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AIMTo study the frequency of occurrence of phenotypic characters like:

1. Hitch hikers Thumb 2. Attached Earlobes 3. Rolling Tongue 4. Kinky Hair 5. Widows Peak 6. Movable Earlobes 7. Vulcan Hand sign 8. Hand clasp Right over left or left over right.

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IntroductionHeredity is the branch of Science dealing with the study of resemblances and differences between the parents and their offspring. On the other hand, Genetics is a larger field of Biology, which involves the study of heredity and its reasons governing them. It was in 1901 that the basis of inheritance of characters among the parents and their progeny was discovered by three workers while hunting the literature, that the studies and conclusions similar to those of their own had been published by Gregor Mendel in 1886. Realising the importance of Mendels work, they called him Father of Genetics. It is in the same spirit and scene that Mendel is still known as the Father of genetics.

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Survey proceduresA group of girls were selected from class XII and assessed for the purpose of the survey. They were tested for the following characters.

Hitch Hikers thumbThe persons under survey were asked to bend their thumb as much as possible in the reverse direction. Some people were able to bend their thumb to an L shape while others could not do so.

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Attached Earlobes

Here, the earlobes are attached to the skin. The girls are examined for an attached earlobe and on the basis of their ear being attached or not, the observations are noted. The results were tabulated as the table attached at the end of this investigatory report.

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Detached

Attached

Rolling tongueThe persons under the survey were asked to swirl their tongues into a roll. The number and names of those people who could and could not were noted.

Kinky hairThere are people whose scalp hair is springy and

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there are others whose hair is straight. This character was also noted. The names of those who had kinky hair and those who had straight hair were noted.

Kinky Hair Long Hair

Straight

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Widows peakIf the hairline of a person has a V shape on the forehead, the type of hairline is said to have a Widows Peak. The girls possessing a Widows Peak were noted and those who didnt were also noted.

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Vulcan Hand signInspired from the famous SCI-FI classic, Star Trek, this is a newly derived fun character which is used to distinguish between the goblins and the earthlings. The concerned person is asked to show the palm of their hand with their first three fingers from the thumb paired and tilted towards one side and the other two paired and tilted towards the other side. Those who could do this without strain were listed as goblins and those who couldnt as earthlings.

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Movable EarlobesLike our primate ancestor, some of us can still move the outer pinnae of our earlobes. Those who could do this amazing trick and those girls who couldnt were noted.

Hand clasp-right over left or left over rightThe test subjects are asked to randomly put their hands together. According to which thumb comes on top, i.e. the left or right, the students are noted and listed.

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OBSERVATION TABLESL. NO. NAMEHITCH HIKERS THUMB

ATTACHED EAR LOBE X X X X X X X X X X X X

ROLLING TONGUE

KINKY HAIR

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 15 . .

X X X X X X X X X X

X X X X X X X X X X

SL. NO.

NAME

WIDOWS PEAK

MOVABLE EARLOBES X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X

VULCAN HAND SIGN

HANDCLASP -RIGHT:LEFT

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. . .

X X X X X X

X X X X X X X X X X X X X

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Self Study ChartThe survey procedures adopted for spotting various phenotypes in the girls of our class were repeated in my partner and me as well. The observations are recorded below:

Name Hitch Hikers Thumb Attached Earlobes Rolling Tongue Kinky Hair Widows Peak Movable Earlobes Vulcan Sign X X X X

X X X X X

X X

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Hand Clasp Right : Left

X

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INFERENCEThe survey conducted amongst 18 girls including the surveyors, selected at random, gave the following data and the ratios obtained were as follows.

FEATURES RATIO Hitch hikers thumb: Non Hitch hikers thumb 6:12 Attached earlobe: Non-attached Earlobe 4:14 Rolling tongue: Non rolling tongue 9:9 Kinky hair: Straight hair 3:15 Widows peak: Straight hairline

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10:8 Movable Earlobes: Non movable Earlobes 1:7 Goblins: Earthlings 4:14 Hand Clasp: Right over Left 5:13

CONCLUSIONSFrom the above inference, the investigation done on the frequency of occurrence of phenotypic characters concludes the following:

1. For the phenotypic character Hitch hikers thumb, the frequency of non-Hitch Hikers thumb was high in the considered population. 2. For the phenotypic character of Attached Earlobes, the non-occurrence of the phenotype, i.e. Unattached

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earlobes are more common in the considered population. 3. For the phenotypic character of Rolling Tongue, the nonoccurrence of the phenotype to its occurrence occurs in equal proportions in the considered population. 4. For the phenotypic character, Kinky Hair, the occurrence of the phenotype in the considered population is very rare. 5. For the phenotypic character the non-occurrence of the phenotype to its occurrence is in the ratio 6. For the phenotypic character, Widows peak, the occurrence in the considered population is very rare when compared to straight hairline. 7. For the phenotypic character of Movable Earlobes, the non-occurrence of the phenotype is more common in the considered population.8.

For the phenotypic character of Hand Clasping, those who put right over left hand predominate over those who put left hand over right hand.

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