Study Guide Genetics
1. What were Gregor Mendel’s contributions to the study of genetics?
2. What are somatic cells?
3. What are Germ cells?
4. What do germ cells develop into?
5. What are gametes, and what is their purpose?
6. What is a karyotype?
7. How many chromosomes do humans have?
8. What is an autosome?
9. What is the purpose of the X and Y chromosome.
10. What does the term diploid mean? What is the human diploid number?
11. What does the term haploid mean? What is the human haploid number?
12. What type of cells are haploid? Why?
13. How is mitosis different from meiosis?
14. Where does meiosis occur?
15. Why is it important that meiosis creates haploid cells from diploid cells?
16. What is an allele?
17. What is the difference between being homozygous and heterozygous for a trait?
18. What is the difference between a dominant and recessive allele?
19. Look up and define Mendel’s “Law of Segregation”
20. What is the difference between a genotype and a phenotype?
21. Explain how you can use a punnett square to predict possible genotypes and phenotypes
of individuals.
22. Define independent assortment.
23. Explain what crossing over is, and how it leads to increased genetic diversity.
24. What does it mean if genes are “linked”?
25. Explain what incomplete dominance is, and what the phenotype of the heterozygous
individuals is. Provide an example from lecture or the text book.
26. Explain what codominance is. What phenotype do heterozygous individuals have?
What is an example of codominance?
27. What is a polygenic trait?
28. Explain how many traits are also influenced by the environment.
29. Explain what sex linked traits are, and why they most commonly affect males.
30. Explain what a carrier for a recessive trait is.
31. What is nondisjunction? What are some possible genetic disorders that occur due to
nondisjunction?
32. Explain why recessive alleles that are lethal or damaging to an organism still exist in a
population. (think about the breeding bunnies lab)