Life Sciences lab classes explained

You are also going to need to know about Mendel's second law....so here is a heads up: Mendel's Second Law: The Law of Independent Assortment This law is about the inheritance of more than one trait i.e. more than one set of gene pairs/alleles... During gamete formation,  alleles for one trait will separate into the gametes  independently of alleles for another trait. In other words, the way one pair of genes segregates into the gametes is not affected by the way a different pair of genes segregates into the gametes. This means that the inheritance of one trait is not dependent on the inheritance of another. Take a look at this Punnett Square: image taken from: http://course1.winona.edu/sberg/241f07/Lec-note/Mendel.htm The Punnett Square above shows the possible genotype and phenotype of pea plants with respect to their pea colour and pod colour. Here is a description of what this Punnett Square shows: ...

You won't get too far in your fly experiment if you don't know about  Mendel's laws . These laws describe the  fundamental principles of inheritance . Amazingly, Mendel figured this all out by studying pea plants (over 10,000 for 10 years) way before DNA and Genes were understood.  Mendel first reported these laws in 1865 but they faded into obscurity until they were rediscovered in 1900. A couple of definitions: GENOTYPE  =  What genes a cell contains PHENOTYPE  = T he characteristics/traits of an organism  Anyway, that is enough preamble --> to the laws.... Mendel's First Law: The Law of Segregation   Every individual has a pair of genes (alleles)  for any particular trait.  Each parent passes on only one allele to each of their gametes - by meiosis.  Gametes randomly come together,  hence offspring will have again two alleles for a particular trait,  one from their moth...