By Tom Brown and Kyle Mirabal Period 1

How are traits controlled by dominant and recessive alleles?

Dominant is superior to recessive therefore more traits that are dominant will be more common. Traits such as brown eyes to blue eyes, brown is dominant that means you see it more.How are traits controlled by co-dominant alleles?

When two parents have an offspring and they have two different phenotypes when you have the offspring, a third phenotype is getting traits from both parents.Explain how the alleles of two parents combine to express the traits of the offspring?

Each parent has a dominant and a recessive alleles this is how the parents offspring will get all of the genetic makeup to the offspring.

The Human Genome Project was a project put together by many countries such as the United States, England, China, Japan, Germany, and France. The project started in October of 1990. They studied the human genome and tried to fine the framework of the human DNA. This caused a lot of anger in the public. Some people did not believe in knowing and changing DNA because they thought it was unethical. People also believed that scientists do not have the right to change an organisms genomes, only God. Because of this, the U.S. Congress passed a law called the Genetic Information and Nondiscrimination Act of 2008. This Act  stated that people with certain disease could not be denied medical research in finding a cure for that disease.

Sickle Celled Anemia- This disorder is a single celled disorder. It is cause by a mutation in the hemoglobin gene.

Down Syndrome- Down Syndrome is when a fetus during pregnancy gets 47 chromosomes instead of 46, causing chromosome abnormalities. Some physical features are small hands, a small head, flattened nose, and short fingers.

Epilepsy- With this disorder, people who have epilepsy have seizures that are caused by abnormally excited electrical signals in the brain.

The sickle cell disorder is similar and different to Down Syndrome and Epilepsy. Sickle cell Disorder is a mutation in a gene, meanwhile Down syndrome is a change in chromosomes. Down syndrome is similar to epilepsy because both disorders you can get from birth and have trouble learning. Sickle Cell disorder is equally common in men and women.  Epilepsy and down syndrome are more common in men.

Genetic counseling helps future parents because they would know if their baby has a genetic disorder, or a disease is passed down heretically. If it turns out the baby does have a genetic disorder/disease, they will help them know what to do and how to prepare.  These counselors are well trained and mostly have a degree in Genetic Counseling. They are very educated in genetics and can preform many tests and trials on genes. These tests only look for one problem at a time. These  tests are  not  very accurate, they just give an estimate of how likely you are to get the disorder, not how severe the disease will be. These also cannot pick up all genetic mutations, and only show the most common ones. These tests will also help prevent diseases like cancer and heart disease by detecting them earlier. 

How can Karyotypes be used to predict genetic disorders. Because the karyotypes are used to see how many chromosomes are in the person and what color it is under the microscope.

How can genetic counseling help perspective parents who have a genetic disorder regarding future children? The counsoler interprets a family with a genetic disorder. Education about how genetic disorder can be passed from parent to offspring. And the testing for it or even prevent it.

There are many reasons that people say that genetic modification is bad. Some of the reasons are that engineering organisms is bad because you are messing with Gods creation. The reason that they say this is god created everyone in a special way.

Another reason that it is bad sometimes it could go bad. Such as the project failing and something could go wrong. For example say you have a dog and you want to have blond hair on it and you get blue hair. No affiance who would want that.

Genetic Modification makes better, healthier foods and animals for the world. These foods can feed the hungry because their genetics have all the vitamins and minerals people need to survive, such as golden rice. They can also genetically modify crops to be resistant to harmful things like extreme weather and bugs. Genetic Modification would be very beneficial to countries that have little crops and very harsh weather. Whenever these countries are affected by famine, they will have genetically modified crops available to eat. This will reduce world hunger.  Scientists can also use Genetic Modification on certain animals, like horses and donkeys, to be faster and stronger and help farmers with heavy labor. It would also help in countries where most transportation of people, as well as goods, is mainly done through animal labor. Scientists can also make other animals, such as rescue dogs, stronger and smarter. Those animals would help find people in danger and in need of rescuing.

I mean, we're really making a quantum change in our relationship to the plant world with genetic modification.”Michael Pollan

In conclusion we have learned the basic principles of genetics also about the human genome project. And what people think about genetic modification and why it is good but can be wrong. I do think the government should fund this because in the long run if we make food better then it is it could really help up with our heath.

"The American Journal of Human Genetics." Cell. Web. <http://www.cell.com/AJHG/>.

"Ethical, Legal, and Social Issues --Genome Research." Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Web. <http://www.ornl.gov/sci/techresources/Human_Genome/elsi/elsi.shtml>.

"The Human Genome Project." The Gene School. Web. ScienceDirect - Home. Web. 10 Mar. 2011.

<http://www.sciencedirect.com/>. "Smithsonian Museum." Smithsonian. Web.

<http://www.si.edu/About>. Sweet Search. Web. Mar. 1. <http://www.sweetsearch.com/>.