Name:
Period:
Date:
Genetics Online Scavenger Hunt
Part 1: Tour of the Basics
Directions:
1. Go to the website: http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/begin/tour/
2. Use each of the following tabs to answer the questions below.
 What is DNA?
 What is a Gene?
 What is a Chromosome?
 What is a protein?
 What is Heredity?
 What is a Trait?
3. As you go from one tutorial to the next answer the corresponding questions
for each topic.
What is DNA?
1. The instructions that provide all the information necessary for living
organisms to grow and live are located in the
.
2. The instructions come in the form of a molecule called
.
3. What do the letters in DNA stand for?
4. What is the name given for the twisted ladder shape of the DNA molecule?
What is a Gene?
1. What is a gene?
2. What makes up a gene?
3. The name of the protein that red blood cells use to capture and carry oxygen
in our bodies is called
.
4. A disorder that can occur if a mutation occurs in the DNA to change the
instructions for making the hemoglobin molecule is called
.
What is a Chromosome?
1. How long would your DNA be if it were stretched out?
2. DNA is packaged in units called
.
3. How many chromosomes do humans have?
1
4. How many pairs of chromosomes do humans have?
5. Which chromosomes determine whether you are male or female?
What is a Protein?
1. Each gene in the DNA molecule encodes information about how to make
individual
.
2. The protein-making machinery, the
DNA instructions.
produce a
based on the
What is Heredity?
1. Our
encode the instructions that define our traits.
2. How do we get traits from our parents?
What are Traits?
1. What is a trait?
2. What are physical traits?
3. What are behavioral traits?
Part 2: Heredity and Traits?
Directions:
1. Go to the following page:
http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/chromosomes/readchromosomes/
How Do Scientists Read Chromosomes?
1. What are the three key features that scientists use to identify similarities and
differences on chromosomes?
a.
b.
c.
2. For what process are centromeres required?
2
3. Centromeres are attached to microtubules (spindle fibers), which are proteins
that can pull chromosomes toward
ends of each cell before the cell
divides.
4. This ensures that each daughter cell will have a full set of
.
Making a Karyotype http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/chromosomes/karyotype/
1. What is a karyotype?
2. How are chromosomes arranged and numbered in a karyotype?
by
, from
to
.
3. This arrangement helps scientists quickly identify chromosomal alterations
that may result in a
.
4. List the three steps scientists use to make a karyotype.
a.
b.
c.
3