● Lecture exams/Labs ●  Attendance ●  Course Outline ●  Lecture Schedule ●  Lab Schedule ●

● Textbook
i Genetics by Russell, 2nd Edition.

● Grading

Note: There is no extra credit in this course.

***The College will make reasonable accommodations for persons with documented disabilities. If you have a disability that may have some impact on your work in this course, please contact the Director of Advising at 103 Goebel Hall (617-3450)

● Lecture Exams
There will be 5 exams based on the lecture material. Only 4 of these will be counted toward your final grade. The final exam will be comprehensive. During the year, there will be no makeup exams. If you miss one exam for any reason, take the final comprehensive exam. Your grades will be given to you on the last day of class. At that time, you have the opportunity to determine if it would be in your best interest to take the comprehensive final exam.

● Labs
There is no  laboratory book  for this class. Labs will be explained during the laboratory period. Data sheets will be filled out during most laboratory periods and handed in before leaving. These will be graded and returned at the beginning of the next laboratory period.

One of the goals of this course is to allow students to develop strong problem solving skills. A number of the labs will involve analyzing data and explaining the genetic basis of trait. The answers will be graded and returned at the beginning of the next laboratory period.

● Drosophila Project
Groups of students will be given true breeding lines of Drosophila melanogaster. Crosses will be made by each member of the group and the results analyzed. Based on class data, the genetic basis of a number of traits will be deduced. Each student will write a report explaining the genetic basis. This project is worth 50 points. 

Timetable

• The first series of crosses will be finished by September 23, 2006 (or before). The offspring will be analyzed and the results submitted by October 6, 2006. 

• The second series of crosses will be finished by October 31, 2006. The offspring will be analyzed and the results submitted by November 7, 2006.

• Class data will be compiled and the results given out on November 10, 2006. The report will be due by November 17, 2006.

● Attendance
It is essential that you attend all lectures to do well in this course. While some concepts in genetics are relatively simple, others are significantly more difficult to comprehend and you will find them much easier to grasp if you are in lecture. Concepts discussed later in the course will be based on concepts learned early in the course. If you are having difficulty with any of the topics discussed, first read the appropriate section of the book, then talk to others in the class about the concept, and then come in and see me. Clear up any problems immediately!

Missed labs cannot be made up. Please inform me in advance if you expect to be absent from a lab or lecture.

● Deadlines
If you choose to hand in assignments or  data sheets late, you will lose 10% of the total possible marks for each day that it is late. Please see me in advance if you anticipate difficulty in meeting a deadline.

● Academic Integrity
Providing or receiving any unauthorized aid during an exam is considered cheating. Failure to perform all parts of an experiment, falsification of data, copying data or lab reports, or copying answers for problem assignments is considered cheating. The College provides guidelines on academic integrity in the E-book. If you have any questions, it is your responsibility to see me. Any student discovered cheating will receive an F in the course and the Dean of Students will be notified.

  
COURSE OUTLINE

Lectures

1. The History of Genetics: The development of genetics as a discipline is followed from the domestication of plants and animals some 10,000 years ago, through the beliefs of Hippocrates and Aristotle (circa 400–300 BC) on reproduction, to recent breakthroughs in molecular genetics and gene therapy.

2. Cell Division: All living things are composed of cells and arise from preexisting cells. The complexities of asexual (mitotic) and sexual (meiotic) cell division is examined. Comparisons between eukaryotic and prokaryotic cells as well as plant and animal cells are detailed. Sexual reproductive strategies in plants and animals are outlined. The affect of parental age, environmental toxins or drugs on cell division is discussed.  

3. Mendelian Genetics: The concept of the gene as developed by Gregor Mendel (1865) is introduced and the inheritance patterns of a variety of plant and animal characteristics are discussed. Traits controlled by single or multiple genes are explored. Gene action and gene interaction are examined with a strong emphasis on pedigree analysis. A discussion of alleles which exhibit complete dominance, incomplete dominance, and codominance is included in this section. In addition the pattern of inheritance of lethal alleles is discussed. Probability and statistical analysis is introduced in this section.

4. Deviation From Mendelian Ratios: The concepts of physical linkage, genetic linkage, and sex linkage are discussed in this section. Mathematical approaches for determining physical distances between genes found in diploid and haploid organisms are examined. Analysis of quantitative traits and polygenic inheritance is introduced. Sex-limited and sex-influenced inheritance is explored.

5. Sex Determination: The two major forms of sex determination are addressed in this section. Pedigree analysis demonstrates the differing inheritance pattern in each of these two systems. Discussion of cell division abnormalities and the effect on individuals with these abnormalities is explored. There is a major emphasis on human sex chromosome abnormalities. These abnormalities are tied to both point mutations and chromosomal mutations (inversions, translocations and deletions).

6. Molecular Genetics: This section deals with the physical basis of life at the molecular level. It includes the structure of deoxyribonucleic acids (DNA) and ribonucleic acid (RNA). The properties of the gene at the atomic level are discussed. The processes which convert the genetic code into protein are elucidated. Included in this section are DNA replication (why daughter cells are exact copies of the mother cell), transcription of the gene into a message, and the translation of the message into protein.

7. Mutation and its Consequences: Errors which lead to mutations are discussed at the molecular level. The eukaryotic chromosome is compared to the prokaryotic chromosome at the organizational and molecular level. The phenomenon of the molecular changes on the chromosomes is related to physiological expression of abnormal characteristics. These are tied to the phenotypes that were introduced during the discussion of Mendelian genetics.

8. Control of Gene Expression: One of the fundamental concepts in biology is the control of the 50,000 genes in a higher eukaryote. Initially, control mechanisms discovered in the bacteria and fungi are explained followed by a discussion of gene regulation in higher organisms. During this part of the course, recent applications of molecular biology and gene regulation are related to gene therapy in plants and animals. The ethical implications of such power are debated.

9. Population Genetics and Evolution: The study of evolution requires an understanding of how allele frequencies change in a population over time. Mathematical models are introduced which allow the student to predict the allele frequency in a population at any given time. These concepts lead into a discussion of factors which may lead to changes in gene frequencies and eventually the formation of new species. This section is concluded with a discussion of the work by Charles Darwin and Alfred Wallace that has led to our current belief of speciation and evolution.

 
Tentative Lecture Schedule

Date	Topic	Chapter
August
29 & 31	Introduction, Terminology Mitosis	1 12
September
5 & 7	Meiosis Variation in Chromosome number Mendelian Analysis	12 pp. 466–473 11
12 & 14	Dihybrid  & Multihybrid Inheritance Statistics Gene Interaction	11 11 13
19	Exam #1
21 & 26	Statistics Sex Influence & Sex Linkage Pedigree Analysis	11 12 11
28	Linkage and Mapping Genes in Eukaryotes	15
October
3 & 5	Linkage in Eukaryotes (continued) Mapping Genes in Prokaryotes and Viruses Cytogenetics	16
10 & 12	Non-Mendelian Genetics	23
17	Exam #2
19 & 24	Structure of DNA and Replication	2 & 3
26 & 31	Transcription Translation Mutation and Repair	4 & 5 6 7
November
2 & 7	Genetics of Cancer	22
9	Exam #3
14 & 16	Recombinant Technology	8
21	Gene Expression (Control)	19
28 & 30	Gene Expression (Development) Population Genetics and Evolution Speciation	21 24
December
5	Exam #4
7	Exams & Grades Returned
14	Comprehensive Final  1:00 p.m.–3:00 p.m.

 

Laboratory Schedule
September
1	Drosophila
8	Mitosis & Meiosis
15	Monohybrid & Dihybrid Analysis  Chi Square
22	Drosophila
29	Statistics Worksheet
October
6	Linkage Analysis
13	Catch up and Review
20	Isolation and Quantitation of DNA
27	Drosophila
November
3	Consequence of Mutation
10	No Lab
17	Recombinant DNA Lecture
24	Thanksgiving Break — NO CLASS
December
1	Catch up and Review for Exam 4
8	Review for the Comprehensive Final

 

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This page last updated: 22 August, 2006