The Interesting Field of Genetics

For the past two weeks, I have learned the interesting field of genetics. This subject is the science of heredity and shows us what is related to what. Many credit this field to Gregor Mendel. He was a monk who studied the cross breeding of pea plants. From then on, scientists have experimented in genetics to such a degree that in 1996 a sheep named Dolly was cloned in Scotland.

First, we learned that humans have 46 chromosomes in a cell. The only exception is 23 chromosomes for a sex cell. Once the two sex cells fertilize, they then combine to make the 46 cells. Another interesting feature we learned about genetics was the Punnet square. The Punnet square shows the mathematical probability of which alleles the child will inherit from each parent in a neat and simple box. We first learned how to use a mono-hybrid Punnet square, a pretty basic concept. There is only one allele that you have to multiply by. Then, comes the di-hybrid punnet square where gametes come into play. To me, gametes are similar to the distributive property, which is what I told several students in my class to help them understand it better. If say you are told to show the possible combination's of alleles through a punnet square. You are then given these alleles: GgBB and GGbb. To find the possible alleles that the child will have, you have to use "the distributive property" as I mentioned before.

Because of genetics, scientists would not be able to read many different types of cells and its genetic material. We would also not be able to find the different alleles that each cell possess. Clearly, the field of genetics has had a huge impact on our world today.