Chapter 1

Genetics: An Introduction

Copyright 2010 Pearson Education Inc.

 Science

of heredity

Heredity Molecular nature of genetic material Way in which genes control life functions Distribution and behavior of genes in populations

Central

to biology

Underlies all life processes

 Gregor

Mendel (1856) Paul Berg (1972) recombinant DNA Herbert Boyer & Stanley Cohen (1973) cloning Kary Mullis (1986) PCR Genomic Revolution

Hypothetico-deductive method of investigation Subdisciplines of genetics

Transmission genetics transmission from generation to generation and how genes recombine Molecular genetics molecular structure and function of genes Population genetics few genes in groups of individuals Quantitative genetics many genes in group of individuals

Integration with other areas of biology (e.g. ecology, evolution)

 Basic

gain understanding of fundamental phenomena Applied use of the basics to solve problems

Recombinant DNA technology

 National

Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) www.nlm.nih.gov

Pubmed www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed Online Mendelian Inheritance in Man (OMIM) www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/omim GenBank - www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/genbank Basic Local Alignment Search Tool (BLAST) www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/guide Books - www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books Entrez - www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/gquery

 Gene

locus Genetic distances

Frecuency of recombination

 Qualities

of a good model organism

Short life cycle Large number of offspring per mating Ease of handling Genetic variation in the population (naturally or artificially induced)