Human Biology/Karyotypes Summary

BLOODTYPES

An allele is one of several different forms of genetic information that is present in our DNA at a specific location on a specific chromosome. Human blood type can determined through co-dominant alleles. In fact, human possess three different alleles for human blood type, which include A, B, and O. Now everyone of us possess two ABO blood type alleles, since we each inherited one blood type allele from our biological mother and one from our biological father. Since there are three different alleles, there are a total of six different genotypes at the human ABO genetic locus.

COLOR BLINDNESS

Color blindness is generally a X-linked recessive trait. In fact, red-green color perception defect is the result of a mutation on the X-chromosome, yet the defect manifest itself only upon females when both X-chromosomes are mutant. Males, in comparison, would inherit red-green color blindness if they inherited only one mutant X-chromosome with the defect. Essentially, color blindness is a sex-linked trait.

WOW Biolab: Bacterial Transformation

PROBLEM

In this investigation, you will use the process of bacterial transformation to add a new gene to E. coli cells. The new gene will make the bacterial cells resistant to an antibiotic that would normally prevent the bacteria from growing.

MATERIALS

• E.coli Bacteria
• tubes of Calcium Chloride (CaCl2)
• E.coli Plasmids with ampR
• sterile pipette
• ice water bath
• warm water bath
• agar infused with ampicillin
• sterile inoculation loops
• biohazard container
• incubator
• sterile toothpicks

PROCEDURE

1. Drag a toothpick to E. coli petri dish to get a sample of E. coli, then drop the sample into the calcium chloride tube 1.
2. Drag another toothpick to E. coli petri dish to get a sample of E. coli, then drop the sample into calcium chloride tube 2.
3. Use the sterile pipette to move E. coli plasmids with ampR into tube 1.
4. Drop tube 2 and tube 1 into the ice bath for 15 minutes.
5. Move the tubes from the ice bath into the warm bath for 90 seconds.
6. Drop a sterile inoculating loop into tube 1 to get a sample, and spread it in petri dish one with Agar.
7. Drop a sterile inoculating loop into tube 1 to get a sample, and spread in in petri dish 2 with agar + ampR.
8. Drop a sterile inoculating loop into tube 2 to get a sample, and spread it in petri dish 3 with agar.
9. Drop a sterile inoculating loop into tube 2 to get a sample, and spread it in petri dish 4 with agar + ampR.
10. Place all petri dishes in the 37 degrees celsius incubator for 24 hours.
11. After 24 hours, remove the petri dishes from the incubator and observe results.

RESULTS

• Petri dish 1: There were experiences of growth of bacteria, thus, bacteria within the agar and E. coli with ampicillin are antibiotic resistant.
• Petri dish 2: Like Petri Dish 1, bacteria grew, meaning the bacteria within agar with ampicillin and E. coli with ampicillin are antibiotic resistant.
• Petri dish 3: There were also experiences of growth of the bacteria, signifying that the bacteria within the agar and E. coli without the ampicillin are antibiotic resistant.
• Petri dish 4: No bacteria grew, therefore, the agar with ampicillin and E. coli without ampicillin are not antibiotic resistant.

Your Inner Fish Chapter 11

CHAPTER 11

taxonomy: the science of naming species and organizing them into the classification scheme that we all memorized in introductory biology

AIDS: a disease in which there is a severe loss of the body's cellular immunity, greatly lowering the resistance to infection and malignancy

heredity: the passing on of physical or mental characteristics genetically from one generation to another

descent with modification: simply passing traits from parent to offspring, and this concept is one of the fundamental ideas from Charles Darwin's theory of evolution

Tiktaalik: a monospecific genus of the extinct sarcopterygian (lobe-finned fish) from the late Devonian period that had many features akin to those of tetrapods; a representative of the evolutionary transition from fish to amphibians

denizens: an inhabitant or occupant of a particular place

physiology:  the branch of biology that deals with the normal functions of living organisms and their parts

larynx: the hollow muscular organ forming an air passage to the lungs and holding the vocal cords in humans and other mammals

glottic closure: a dominant and stable reflex produced by stimulation of the superior laryngeal nerve

gonads: an organ that produces gametes; a testis or ovary

Your Inner Fish Chapters 9-10

CHAPTER 9
"Our eyes have a history as organs, but so do eyes' constituent parts, the cells and tissues, and so do the genes that make those parts." (page 149)

This shows how eyes have evolved from tissues into a major organ of humans today.

"Our eyes, like those of every creature with a skull and a backbone are like little cameras." (page 149)

This shows the relevance between humans and different mammals and creatures.

"The amount of light that enters the eye is controlled by a diaphragm, called the iris, which dilates and contracts by the action of involuntary muscles" (page 150)

This shows the function of the iris within the human eye.

"Our camera-like eye is common to every creature with a skull, from fish to mammals" (page 150)

This shows how eyes have a correlation to every creature and emphasize the effects of evolution.

"The key to understanding the history of our eyes is to understand the relationship between the structures that make our camera-eye and those that make all the other kinds of eyes." (page 151)

This emphasize the relevance between different creatures through their similar structures as well as shows how evolution has taken place through time.

"Animal eyes come in two flavors; one is seen in invertebrates, the other in vertebrates, such as fish and humans" (page 154)

This shows how eyes come in a variety of forms due to evolution.

"We now know that eyeless, or Pax 6, controls development in everything that has eyes" (page 156)

This shows how Pax 6 plays an essential role towards the development of eyes in numerous creatures.

CHAPTER 10

"The part of the ear we can see, the flap on tip of which we hang our glasses, is a relatively new evolutionary addition to bodies." (page 159)

This shows how humans have evolved in order to gain essential and non-essential addition features.

"The elegance of our connection to sharks and bony fish is revealed when we look inside our ears." (page 159)

This shows the connection between humans and sharks through ears.

"As we've seen, each of these ear bones is derived from the gill arches: the stapes from the second arch, and the malleus and incus from the first arch." (page 160)

This shows the evolutionary path our ear bones essentially went through in order to evolve from gill arches from fish to adaptable features for the human body.

"The explosive bit of information, thought, was that the other middle ear bones of mammals, malleus and incus, evolved from bones sets in the back of the reptilian jaw" (page 161)

This shows how ear bones in mammals essentially evolved from the bones of an ancient reptile.

"Despite the apparent differences in the function and shape of these bones, the similarities between hyomandibula and the stapes extend even to the nerves that supply them" (page 162)

This demonstrates how ears have similarities in various creatures despite differences in function and shape, emphasizing biological relevance.

Your Inner Fish Chapters 7-8

CHAPTER 7

glycerin: a simple polyol (sugar alcohol) compound that is a colorless, odorless, viscous liquid that is widely used in pharmaceutical formulations.

microbes: any living organism that spends its life at a size too tiny to be seen with the naked eye, including bacteria and archae bacteria

Precambrian: a period thought to be devoid of life

skeleton: the internal structure that protects and supports the soft organs, tissues, and other parts of a vertebrate organism, and is composed of bone and cartilage

Hydroxyapatite: the calcium phosphate mineral found both in rocks of non-organic origin and as a component of bone and dentine

cartilage: a firm, connective tissue found in many areas of the body that is softer and much more flexible than bone

collagen: the most abundant protein in the human body and is the substance that holds the whole body together; found in the bones, muscles, skin and tendons

proteoglycan: a molecule that gives cartilage strength when squeezed or compressed; a molecule that swells up with water

enamel: the hard mineralized surface of teeth that insulates the teeth from potentially painful temperatures and chemicals

placozoan: a basal form of invertebrate that are the simplest in structure of all non-parasitic multicellular animals

choanoflagellates: a group of free-living unicellular and colonial flagellate eukaryotes considered to be the closest living relatives of the animals

CHAPTER 8

anatomy: the branch of science concerned with the bodily structure of humans, animals, and other living organisms, especially as revealed by dissection and the separation of parts

biology: the study of living organisms, divided into many specialized fields that cover their morphology, physiology, anatomy, behavior, origin, and distribution

receptor: an organ or cell able to respond to light, heat, or other external stimulus and transmit a signal to a sensory nerve

neurons: a specialized cell transmitting nerve impulses; a nerve cell

olfactory epithelium: a specialized epithelial tissue inside the nasal cavity that is involved in smell

genome: the haploid set of chromosomes in a gamete or microorganism, or in each cell of a multicellular organism

mutation: the changing of the structure of a gene, resulting in a variant form that may be transmitted to subsequent generations, caused by the alteration of single base units in DNA, or the deletion, insertion, or rearrangement of larger sections of genes or chromosomes

evolution: the process by which different kinds of living organisms are thought to have developed and diversified from earlier forms during the history of the earth

Your Inner Fish Chapters 5-6

CHAPTER 5

1. Why are the trigeminal and facial cranial nerves both complicated and strange in the human body?
2. List the structures that are formed from the four embryonic arches (gill arches) during human development.
3. What are Hox genes and what role do they play?
4. What exactly is the fundamental blueprint for the head and describe?
5. What is the pattern similarity between shark and human skulls?
6. Why is Amphioxus such an important specimen for study despite being a small invertebrate?

CHAPTER 6

1. What is meant by “ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny?”
2. What is the Organizer and why is it important?
3. Describe the blastocyst stage in embryonic development.
4. What role do the ectoderm, mesoderm, endoderm each play in embryo development?
5. What are Noggin genes and what role do they play?
6. What type of gene is Noggin?
7. Is Noggin an activator or a suppressor?

Your Inner Fish Chapters 3-4

Your Inner Fish Chapters 1-2

CHAPTER 1 SUMMARY

CHAPTER 2 SUMMARY

MI Survey Results

This is Jennifer's MI survey results and my results are showing that my strongest domain is 37% which is under the introspective category which my weakest domain is the interactive category. Thus, I am perceived to have an intrapersonal and introspective personality. By having an introspective intelligience, I am able to figure out my own feelings, motivation, and goals. In addition, I am also said to be intuitive and typically introverted, which enables me to learn best independently. So I guess AP Biology is going to be a good year for me since it is a class of independent self-study. Some common characteristics that I am supposed to show for someone with introspective intelligience is independence, self-awareness, and perfectionistic. However, I personally find this very contradicting because I perceive myself to be outgoing and dependent on others. Yet, as the MI survey scoring reports defines who I am, I shall continue to embark along the journey of my school years at Alhambra and defy this MI Survey Scoring Report.