Genetic Variety

Genetic variety is the different genes and alleles that a species could get. Our Reebob’s are a perfect example to demonstrate this. We used Reebob's to mate them to see the different genotypes and phenotypes they would get. For example, in the beginning my bug had an all green genotype and it looked like this.









Then after mating a few times the bug had a genotype that had 4 different colors and looked different from the first one.

This is all from something called crossing over. Crossing over happens during the process of meiosis. It gives the sperm or egg cell part of the mother's genes and part of the father's genes, this way the offspring will be a mix of both of the parents. This is how my Reebob went from all green to green, purple, yellow and black. Each time my Reebob mated it got another Reebob's genes. This made the new Reebob unique because even if the phenotype is the same as another bug, it is VERY unlikely that they will have the same genotype. This is because even if the alleles are the same to give you the same phenotype as someone, it is even more unlikely for them to have the same colors as you are. That is why they call it genetic variety because there is a huge variety of genetics that are possible for the new Reebob to get. Using Reebob's gave me a clearer understanding of how genetic variety works with things like phenotypes, genotypes and crossing over.

what we did in class 3/7/10

In class we have been learning about co-dominant and incomplete dominant alleles. If I could go back in time i would tell myself that co - dominant alleles are alleles that have more than one dominant gene. Also that if you have two co - dominant genes part of the thing the is for will be one gene and the other part of it will be the other. Where as incomplete dominance is a mix where say if you have a white flower and a red flower they will make a pink flower.

This week I had a little trouble with those concepts until we finished making our bugs. As we were doing that I saw that my bug was co-dominant for its green and brown color so it would not be a green- brown color but half green and half brown. Also that even though my antennae was feathered, others could be round or round and feathered which was a combination of the two. Since it said that the antennae were incomplete dominant and I knew that some of them could be a mix of each other that’s when I really started to get the concept of the two.


Incomplete Dominance:
(Picture)
http://www.bio.miami.edu/~cmallery/150/mendel/c14x9incomplete-dominance2.jpg

Co-Dominance:
(Picture)
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f3/Co-dominance_Rhododendron.jpg