AG V03 Lecture: Plant Genetics (Ch 13 & a little of 14) ©2009 copyright Marta D. de Jesus
We’ll do the 2nd half of the chapter 1st (starting on pg 235)
Q: How do organisms inherit traits from their parents?
I. Johann Gregor Mendel
D. Specific questions he answered
1. Do both parents contribute equally to their offspring?
2. Is there an equal chance of getting either of the versions a parent has?
3. Are traits only found in one form?
4. Do traits blend to give intermediates?
5. How do these different versions of a trait interact?
6. Do traits sort independently of 1 another?
Genetic linkage
II. Useful genetics terms
A. gene
B. locus (loci)
C. alleles
D. homologous chromosomes
E. homozygous
F. heterozygous
G. dominant
H. recessive
I. genotype
J. phenotype
III. How do we figure out these patterns?
A. Punnett Squares
1. left side
2. top side
B. Monohybrid Cross
C. Dihybrid Cross
IV. Type of traits
A. dominant vs. recessive
B. pleiotropic
C. polygenic
D. incompletely dominant
E. codominant = multiple alleles
F. linked traits
G. quantitative traits
H. maternally inherited
V. Hardy-Weinberg Law
VI. Why the concern about plant breeding?
A. Feeds the world from ancient times until now
Top Fruits and Vegetables
World's Leading Produce Crops May Surprise You
© Daniel Workman
Sep 21, 2007
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations reports the top 10 fruit and vegetable
products by weight in 2005.
Not all fruits and vegetables on our lists below make great exports or imports. The reason? Some of these
products have comparatively short shelf lives, and would spoil during long trans-Atlantic delivery routes.
Also, the cost of shipping vast quantities of the heavier fruits and vegetables would be prohibitive. Still it's
interesting to consider the leading food crops from around the world.
Top 10 Fruit Crops
Tomatoes ... 124.7 million tonnes (production, 2005)
Watermelons ... 95.3 million tones
Bananas ... 72.4 million tones
Grapes ... 66.5 million tones
Apples ... 63.5 million tones
Oranges ... 59.9 million tones
Coconuts ... 55 million tones
Plantains ... 33.4 million tones
Cantaloupes & other melons ... 28.3 million tones
Mangoes ... 28 million tonnes
Top 10 Vegetable Crops
Sugar cane ... 1.3 billion tonnes (production, 2005)
Potatoes ... 322 million tones
Sugar beets ... 242 million tones
Soybeans ... 209.5 million tones
Sweet potatoes ... 129.9 million tones
Cabbages ... 69.5 million tones
Dry onions ... 57.6 million tones
Cucumbers & pickles ... 41.7 million tones
Yams ... 39.9 million tones
Eggplants ... 30.5 million tones
And yes, tomatoes are considered fruits and technically sugar cane is a vegetable.
Agricultural Biosecurity isssues: http://www.apsnet.org/online/feature/BioSecurity/
B. heterosis/hybrid vigor
C. polyploidy
(Ch 14 has more info on breeding and propagation)
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VII. So what’s a gene really?
VIII. Central Theory/Tenet/Dogma of Molecular Biology
A. DNA
DNA replication
B. RNAs
transcription
C. polypeptides/proteins
translation
* be sure to know where each event occurs inside the cell
D. DNA structure
nucleotides
E. RNA structure
nucleotides
IX. How are these used by the cell?
A. DNA replication
hydrogen bonds are temporarily broken
template
base-pairing rules
DNA polymerase
order of the nucleotides
mutation
somatic
germline
transposition
transposons/jumping genes
B. RNA transcription
RNA polymerase
3 kinds of RNA
messenger RNA
transfer RNA
ribosomal RNA
C. Protein translation
What are the DNA & RNA saying?
Universal genetic code
AUG
need
Initiation
Elongation
Termination
X. So what’s Biotechnology? Just a little (see Ch 14 for more details)
A. using organisms
1. agriculture
2. fermentation
B. new versions
1. genetic engineering
2. PCR
3. cloning
C. Why? some examples in plants