Genetic Variety Blog.

Genetic Variety means that each new cell is different from each the parents. It is not exactly 1/2 of Mom and 1/2 Dad. Crossing over occurs, which means that the chromatids become varieted and each one has a little bit of Mom and a little bit of Dad. Here is a picture of crossing over :

As you can see, each gamete has a different mix. Nothing is the same. Once sexual reproduction occurs, these will mix. Whichever gamete ends up becoming fertilized has a different amount of the DNA from each parent.

The Reebops do the same thing too. They also have to got through sexual reproduction to produce their child. Each new child isn't exactly like the parents. Some are mostly like one parent (because four different traits are possible.... Punnett Square.) while others have a different mix. My Reebops have maybe only one of the grandparents traits. Some have almost all of the one of the parents traits. This shows variety from each cell. This is actually genetic variety, because there is an assortment of different traits and genes. My second Reebop could look nothing like it's parents. Maybe it is because it got some of the receesive traits from the parents. Here is an example of what could happen:

Parents:

Child:

You can see that even though the parents are green and brown, it doesn't neccesarily mean that the child has to be green or brown.

Genetic variety is when the children are different. Remember that genetic variety is just like it's name..... it's differences in the traits.

Thanks for reading.

If I could go back in time and help myself about something, it would be Punnett Squares and Gregor Mendel. I found this very confusing before and there are some things I would like to clarify with my past self.

First off, I would tell her that Punnett Squares are not as difficult as I though they were. To clarify even more, I would tell her to think of plotting points on graph paper to find which points go in which quadrant of the graph.Then, just match up the alleles above the first square and next to the first square to have my alleles that would be possible for my offspring. I would also tell my past self to just think about how things would match up in the Punnett Square. I would say that if the two parents are homozygous dominant for something, the child can't be homoszygouse recessive, because none of the alleles would match up in a Punnett Square that would make that true.

Also, I would tell myself that Mendel was breeding these pea plants by taking pollen from each plant and mixing them to make different offspring. Pollen is gametes, so this is kind of like sexual reproduction. I did not understand what Mendel was doing when I first read it in out books, but now I understand Mendell's purpose for breeding these pea plants. He was curious of what the outcome of the offspring would be with all of the different combinations of pea plant parents.

An experiment that really helped me realize this was the pea soup experiment on the computer. Looking at the different alleles and traits of each pea really helped me understand the concept of genetics and the breeding that I mentioned before.

Below is an example of one of the possibilities of breeding two peas: