GATTACA Listening Guide Questions

Challenge Question: What are the trade-offs of using genetic engineering and genetic profiling in our society?

Initial Thoughts:

1) Who are the four main characters? How do they all relate to each other in the scope and plot of the story? ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

2) Which characters have aliases? What are their aliases if they have one? ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

3) When Vincent was born, the nurse read his genetic profile. What were some traits that Vincent was predicted to have? ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

4) What is an ―in-valid‖ or a ―degenerate‖? ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

5) What was meant when Vincent said the line ―My real resume was in my cells‖ ? ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

6) List 3 ways that the society portrayed in the movie routinely ―reads‖ a person’s genetic profile.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

7) List three things Vincent did on a daily basis to maintain his ―Jerome‖ identity. How did these things help keep people from figuring out that Vincent was an in-valid? _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

8) What was the significance of the 12 fingered pianist? What do you think the movie was trying to show? __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

9) Compare Anton to Vincent. How was Vincent able to beat Anton at swimming despite his weak heart? What does this say about genetics? ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

10) Give at least 2 specific examples where a character’s genetic profile did not accurately predict that characters ultimate personality, health, or fate? ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

11) How is it possible that a person might turn out differently than what their genetic profile indicates?

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

12) It is possible that in the near future life insurance companies, health insurance companies, employers, and the government may have the tools to read our genetic profiles. What are some possible consequences of this? Are there any benefits? ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

13) What other questions do you have about the movie? Was there anything you ―didn’t get‖? ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Summary: In the beginning of this activity I thought the answer to the challenge question was…..

but now I think (or still think) ……

GATTACA Page 2 of 2

Activity 66 Patterns of Pedigree

Challenge Question: Initial Thoughts: Evidence:

STT #1a

STT #1c

STT #2

STT #3

STT #4

STT #5

STT #6

Which allele(s) is/are codominant? Which allele (s) is/are recessive?

Act #66 page 1 of 5

Act #66 page 2 of 5

Key Genotype = Phenotype

Key Genotype = Phenotype

Key Genotype = Phenotype

Analysis Questions: 1. The following pedigrees represent the blood types of four unrelated families. In each case, the parents have Type A and Type B blood. a. Which of the eight parents are definitely heterozygous for Type O

allele? Explain.

b. Which of the eight parents are probably not heterozygous for the Type O allele? Explain.

c. Can you be certain that the parent you named in response to

Question 1b do not have a Type O allele? Explain. 2. The pedigree shown below represents a genetic condition. Use the information it provides to answer the questions below. Write out the allele combinations (genotype) for each individual.

Act #66 page 3 of 5

Key Genotype = Phenotype

a. Is the condition most likely a dominant or recessive trait? Explain your reasoning.

b. Is Jan most likely to be homozygous dominant, heterozygous, or

homozygous recessive. 3. The pedigree shown below represents another genetic condition. Use the information it provides to answer the questions below. Write out the allele combinations (genotype) for each individual.

a. Is the condition most likely a dominant or a recessive trait? Explain

your reasoning. b. Is Marcos most likely to be homozygous dominant, heterozygous, or

homozygous recessive. Explain your reasoning.

Key Genotype = Phenotype

Act #66 page 4 of 5

4. The pedigree shown below represents a third genetic condition. Use the information it provides to answer the questions below. Write out the allele combinations (genotype) for each individual.

a. Is the condition most likely a dominant or a recessive trait. Explain

your reasoning. b. Is Sophia most likely to be homozygous dominant, heterozygous, or

homozygous recessive? Explain your reasoning. 5. The term carrier is used very differently in genetics than in the study of diseases. a. What is being ―carried‖ by a genetic disorder? What is being ―carried‖

by a disease carrier? b. How does transmission occur for genetic conditions? How does

transmission occur for infectious diseases? Summary: In the beginning of Activity # ___ I thought the answer to the challenge question was….. but now I think (or still think) … My evidence for this is ……

Key Genotype = Phenotype

Cloning – The Basics Please go to the following website to begin:

http://gslc.genetics.utah.edu/units/cloning/whatiscloning/

1. ___________________ is the creation of an organism that is an exact genetic copy of

another.

2. You might not believe it, but there are human clones among us right now. They

weren’t made in a lab, though: they’re _______________________, created naturally.

3. ______________________________________ is the relatively low-tech version of cloning. As the name suggests, this technology mimics the natural process of creating identical twins.

4. Artificial embryo twinning uses the same approach, but it occurs in a ____________ instead of in the mother’s body.

5. Somatic cell nuclear transfer was the method used to create ____________________.

6. A __________________ is any cell in the body other than the two types of reproductive cells, sperm and egg.

7. It’s the differences in our ________ that make each of us unique.

8. To make Dolly, researchers isolated a ____________ from an adult female sheep. Next, they _________________ the _________________ from that cell to an egg cell from which the nucleus had been removed. After a couple of chemical tweaks, the egg cell, with its new nucleus, was behaving just like a freshly fertilized ___________. It developed into an _________________, which was implanted into a ___________________________ and carried to term.

9. _____________ (be specific! I need the name of the mammal!) was the first ever mammal to be cloned from an adult somatic cell.

10. Play the natural reproduction movie for this question: Because the offspring contains a combination of the two sets of parent’s chromosomes, it is not genetically identical to either parent but is , instead, _________________________.

11. Play the somatic cell nuclear transfer movie for this question: The somatic cell is _____________________ in a media that causes it to _________ ______ _______________ as an udder cell.

12. An egg cell is _____________ from a different animal. The egg cell’s ______________ is removed.

13. The egg cell and the somatic cell are __________ using an ______________ __________________.

14. Go to this web site and follow the instructions! http://gslc.genetics.utah.edu/units/cloning/clickandclone/ List all 6 steps in the ―click and clone‖ procedures.

1. ___________________________________________

2. __________________________________________

3. __________________________________________

4. __________________________________________

5. __________________________________________

6. __________________________________________

15. What color was the cloned mouse? ___________________

16. In the real mouse cloning experiment, what was the name of the first born survivor? ___________________________

Gel Electrophoresis Assignment Go to: http://gslc.genetics.utah.edu/units/biotech/gel/ Answer the following questions as your work through the simulation.

1. What is your job? 2. How can you sort DNA by size if it too small to see with a microscope?

3. What 2 things can gel electrophoresis be used to separate out?

4. Describe what the gel looks like at a microscopic level.

5. What is at one end of the gel? 6. What gets added to the gel once the DNA strands are in?

7. Describe how different length pieces move through the gel.

8. What must you do to the DNA in the gel before you can view it? 9. What materials do you need to make gel?

10. What is the agarose made from? 11. Why do you add liquid buffer to the agarose?

12. What is at the end of the mold to hold in the agarose? 13. Why do you put the comb in the gel?

14. Why must you add loading buffer to the DNA sample? (2 reasons)

15. In real life, is loading the DNA into gel easy? Explain. 16. What is the purpose of putting the DNA size standard next to the DNA sample?

17. When running electricity through the gel, black = + or – charge and

red = + or – charge. (circle – or + for each)

Gel electrophoresis HW page 1 of 2

18. What charge is DNA? + or -

19. What proof can you look for to make sure the gel is running?

20. Why does the DNA move?

21. What must you add to the DNA to see it? 22. Can you see single DNA strands?

23. What do you place your gel on in order to view it?

24. What are the units of measurement for DNA? Why does it stand for?

25. What did you estimate your DNA strands to be?

Top band: ______ Middle band: ______ Bottom band: ______

26. What was the actual DNA strand lengths? Top band: ______ Middle band: ______ Bottom band: ______

27. Draw a picture of what the final product of the gel electrophoresis looks like below.

Gel electrophoresis HW page 2 of 2

Activity: Making a Karyotype Challenge Question:

Initial Thoughts: Evidence: A karyotype is an organized profile of a person's ______________. In a karyotype, chromosomes are arranged and numbered by _____, from largest to smallest. This arrangement helps scientists quickly identify chromosomal _______________ that may result in a __________________________.

To make a karyotype, scientists take a picture of someone's chromosomes, cut them out and match them up using __________, ____________________________ and ___________________________ as guides.

(Fold your Karyotype in half and Paste one half of the page here)

Analysis Questions:

1. How many chromosomes does a human have in each cell, total? ____ 2. How many different kinds of chromosomes does a human have? __________ 3. Use the following three words in a sentence, and show their relationship to each

other: chromosome, gene, DNA.

Summary: In the beginning of Activity # ___ I thought the answer to the challenge question was….. but now I think (or still think) …… My evidence for this is ……

Karyotyping page 1 of 1

Modern Genetics Study Guide Human Inheritance (6.1) Know the key terms and ideas

Multiple alleles, sex chromosomes, sex-linked gene, carriers Understand that some traits are controlled by a single gene with two alleles, others by many genes that act together, and some traits by single genes with multiple alleles (more than 2)—example of that would be blood groups. Sex chromosomes carry the genes that determine sex, and other traits. Many of the traits are determined by the environment and the genes.

Human Genetic Disorders (6.2) Know the key terms and ideas

Genetic Disorder, Pedigree, Karyotype Some genetic disorders are caused by mutations in DNA of genes. Others caused by overall change in chromosome structure or number. Know what a pedigree is and how to use one. How do we detect genetic disorders ? What help is available today to people with genetic disorders?

Advances in Genetics (6.3) Know the key terms and ideas

Selective breeding, inbreeding, hybridization, clone, genetic engineering, gene therapy, genome.

What are three methods of developing organisms with desired traits? How are these methods similar? Different? What are some of the applications of DNA technology? What is the goal or purpose of the human genome project?