Should we Grow GM Crops?
Instructions: Read the page and click YES or NO, reach the next...click YES or NO...etc until you’ve read all the arguments -- You will need to do this 12 times in order for your votes to be tallied. Navigate the site, each of the bold headings below are links within the site
1. What is a GM Crop.
A GM crop is any food that has been modified genetically, to improve its production or solve the crops' problems.
2. List 2 arguments FOR the growing of GM crops
It will lead to the end of pesticides, which are used at a rate of 970 MILLION tons a year. Instead of spraying poison, scientists can genetically engineer resistance to bacteria and viruses that may destroy a whole harvest. Also, GM crops can be male-sterile, leading to no pollen, which incurs less allergies to people.
It can lead to the gradual end of world hunger, due to the possibly huge harvests from GM crops. Right now, 1 in 12 people are malnourished. The Nuffield Council on Bioethics feels that this possibility is enough to justify continuing research in bioengineering. If scientists can create crops that grow twice the size in half the time, then, theoretically, there could be 4 times of the capacity of agriculture.
3. List 2 arguments AGAINST the growing of GM crops.
Health risks may come up, and a new allergen may be created through engineering. It also might cause bacteria in our stomachs to somehow acquire the antibiotic gene in some GM enzymes. Also, the genes changed may take over all other natural flavors of food, because of higher sustainability of its changed species through natural selection.
The economic impact may interfere with old mom-and-pop farms, that are not able to keep up with large corporations that can afford genetic engineering departments who can better their crops. Also, it may lead to loss of culinary diversity because the small farms that create exotic foods will go out of business because they won't be able to charge a premium when other people can produce cheaper food.
*Read some of the reader’s responses.
Engineer a Crop
4. Practice this simulation until you get the largest ears of corn. How many times did it take you?
It took me once, and I had to go through 4 rounds of breeding.
What’s for Dinner?
*Click on the foods on the table to see what research is being done to bioenginner the foods.
5. List two foods and desribe how they are being modified.
Cheese is being GMed, by having rennet injected to curdle cheese quicker. Also, coffee is also being modified to not be caffeinated on the genetic level, and the post-germinated coffee will not have to go through a full decaffeination process.
Viewpoints
*Read the article titled “Are GM Food Sufficiently Regulated in the US?”
Do you think food should be labeled if it has been genetically modified? Why or Why not?
I think it should. The consumer has a right to understand any unnatural occurrences to the products they are buying. However, education should be done to tell the public that GMed products are approved by the FDA, and go through a rigorous approval process. Also, any labels applied to it should not have to be overwhelmingly large; eating GMed foods is certainly not equivalent to the huge health problems incurred by smoking, which has huge signs on its boxes telling consumers about its toxic properties.
Finished? Go to www.yahooligans.com and type "genetic engineering" in the search field. Browse some of the sites that pop up.
(Yahooligans is better than yahoo, the sites tend to be picked for education rather than for scientists and universities, you'll find more understandable and interesting sites on yahooligans than you will with Yahoo)
Write down any of the sites you visited below.
http://www.eco-pros.com/genetic_engineering.htm
http://www.foodmuseum.com/issues.html
http://www.eurekascience.com/ICanDoThat/gen_eng.htm
Friday, December 17, 2010
Monday, December 6, 2010
Epigenetics
Identical Twins:
1. The twins change over time, due to different experiences and environments that occur within the twins' life time. The epigenome conforms to these changes with epigenetic tags that can turn a gene on or off.
2. Environmental factors
Stress, diet, exercise, and release of toxins all can change the epigenome.
3. What is an imprinted gene?
An imprinted gene is a gene that does not have its epigenetic tags wiped out during "cleansing", the process in which an embryo loses most of its parents' epigenetic tags.
Your Environment, Your Epigenome:
I certainly think my diet will certainly change my future life, and my strong disliking of toxins will also contribute. My diet has been quite balanced, however, I have not been eating as healthily when I am stressed. Also, I hope I never try drugs because of their high one-time damage. However, the true dent caused by them are because of addiction, where you will never be able to rectify your epigenome.
LICK YOUR RATS
When a rat is newborn, its mother can change its future behavior forever. The change is through the simple process of grooming and licking a rat. The more licked a rat is, the more calm and relaxed it is in adulthood, and it will reciprocate the licking to younger rats. This licking activates the glucocorticoid receptor (GR), which helps reduce the response to high stress. In the hippocampus, highly-licked rats will send out a calming signal during "Flight or Fight", through the bonding of the hormone cortisol and the GR protein.
This mechanism also applies to humans. When humans are well cared for during childhood, they develop less angst and are less likely to have diabetes and heart disease. Kids who aren't usually become socially low-standing and disliked. However, too much care in humans can also shut children off from the real world which isn't as rosy as it is supposed to be. So-called "helicopter" parents and over-nurturing parents may develop a need to be carefully nurtured, which may hurt self-reliance in adulthood.
Nutrition
Throughout our lives, our diet will change the way our genes are expressed. Consumption of folic acid, B vitamins, and SAM-e, all instrumental in the creation of methyl tags, by the mother during pregnancy is vital to not have chronic under-methylation. If this occurs during your adult life, it will effect you, but it is easily reversed with proper diet.
However, mothers are not the only people who can change your diet. A will-kept log of a small Swedish towns crop harvest showed a correlation between paternal grandparents' diet between 9 and 12 and their grandkids. When there was less food in the grandparent's childhood, the grandchildren would live substantially longer than if their grandparents were fed more.
Epigenetics and the Human Brain
High dietary methyl consumption stabilizes gene expression. This difference is rooted in the epigenetic tags created by methyl, which regulates genes and their amounts of output. Children who are abused that commit suicide have substantially more methyl tags on ribosomal RNA, causing them not to be expressed. Drugs like cocaine create more epigenetic tags in vital parts of the brain, causing relapse and addiction.
1. The twins change over time, due to different experiences and environments that occur within the twins' life time. The epigenome conforms to these changes with epigenetic tags that can turn a gene on or off.
2. Environmental factors
Stress, diet, exercise, and release of toxins all can change the epigenome.
3. What is an imprinted gene?
An imprinted gene is a gene that does not have its epigenetic tags wiped out during "cleansing", the process in which an embryo loses most of its parents' epigenetic tags.
Your Environment, Your Epigenome:
I certainly think my diet will certainly change my future life, and my strong disliking of toxins will also contribute. My diet has been quite balanced, however, I have not been eating as healthily when I am stressed. Also, I hope I never try drugs because of their high one-time damage. However, the true dent caused by them are because of addiction, where you will never be able to rectify your epigenome.
LICK YOUR RATS
When a rat is newborn, its mother can change its future behavior forever. The change is through the simple process of grooming and licking a rat. The more licked a rat is, the more calm and relaxed it is in adulthood, and it will reciprocate the licking to younger rats. This licking activates the glucocorticoid receptor (GR), which helps reduce the response to high stress. In the hippocampus, highly-licked rats will send out a calming signal during "Flight or Fight", through the bonding of the hormone cortisol and the GR protein.
This mechanism also applies to humans. When humans are well cared for during childhood, they develop less angst and are less likely to have diabetes and heart disease. Kids who aren't usually become socially low-standing and disliked. However, too much care in humans can also shut children off from the real world which isn't as rosy as it is supposed to be. So-called "helicopter" parents and over-nurturing parents may develop a need to be carefully nurtured, which may hurt self-reliance in adulthood.
Nutrition
Throughout our lives, our diet will change the way our genes are expressed. Consumption of folic acid, B vitamins, and SAM-e, all instrumental in the creation of methyl tags, by the mother during pregnancy is vital to not have chronic under-methylation. If this occurs during your adult life, it will effect you, but it is easily reversed with proper diet.
However, mothers are not the only people who can change your diet. A will-kept log of a small Swedish towns crop harvest showed a correlation between paternal grandparents' diet between 9 and 12 and their grandkids. When there was less food in the grandparent's childhood, the grandchildren would live substantially longer than if their grandparents were fed more.
Epigenetics and the Human Brain
High dietary methyl consumption stabilizes gene expression. This difference is rooted in the epigenetic tags created by methyl, which regulates genes and their amounts of output. Children who are abused that commit suicide have substantially more methyl tags on ribosomal RNA, causing them not to be expressed. Drugs like cocaine create more epigenetic tags in vital parts of the brain, causing relapse and addiction.
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
Name _____________________________
DNA Fingerprinting
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/sheppard/analyze.html
Objective: Students will learn the steps of DNA fingerprinting by creating a fingerprint in a virtual lab. They will use this fingerprint to solve a virtual crime. The virtual lab is interactive and goes through the step-by-step process of DNA fingerprinting
Create a DNA Fingerprint ( http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/sheppard/analyze.html )
Introduction:
1. DNA is unique for everyone. The only exception is if a person has what?
identical twins.
2. What are DNA fingerprints used for?
they are used to identify people, and for blood testing, like in a crime scene.
Part 1 “It Takes a Lickin”
3. What “crime” was committed?
someone ate the holographic lollipop.
4. What bodily fluid was removed from the “crime scene” to get DNA?
saliva
Part 2 “DNA Fingerprinting at the NOVA Lab”
5. What does a restriction enzyme do?
They cut the DNA into pieces.
6. What is agarose gel?
It is a slimy, JEllo-like gel that allows smaller DNA pieces to go through it quicker.
7. What is electrophoresis?
It moves molecules with an electric current.
8. Smaller fragments of DNA move ____________ than longer strands?
faster
9. Why do you need to place a nylon membrane over the gel?
To allow to move the DNA because the gel is hard to work with.
10. Probes attach themselves to __________
The complementary DNA
11. Which chemical in your “virtual lab” is radioactive?
The probes.
12. Sketch your DNA fingerprint.
3 thin lines, 2 blocks, 4 thin lines, 1 block, 1 thin line, 1 block
13. Based on your DNA fingerprint, who licked the lollipop?
Honey
Click on the Link “DNA Workshop” (if this link won't load, scroll down to the bottom where it says "try the non-java script version)
Once you’re there, go to the link “DNA Workshop Activity” and practice with DNA replication and protein synthesis.
Browse the DNA Workshop site.
14. What kinds of things could you do at the DNA workshop?
Replicate DNA, transcribe DNA to mRNA, and translate mRNA to proteins, which then creates a polypeptide.
Find an Article about DNA
Go to http://www.thegenesite.com/
15. Read an article about genetics at this site that you might find interesting, or use the "Search" box in the upper right hand corner to search for DNA fingerprinting.
Title of Article DNA Fingerprinting Author and Date WebMD, april, 2009
Summarize what the article was about. Write this in a paragraph format.
This article is about the health ramifications of DNA fingerprinting and why you would. You would to identify a body, test relation with thought parents, or to solve a crime. You may not be able to if you have had a blood transfusion in the past 3 months. To get this done, blood will be extracted from a vein. Minor discomfort may be experienced. Also, healthy tissue will help the clarity of the tests.
DNA Fingerprinting
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/sheppard/analyze.html
Objective: Students will learn the steps of DNA fingerprinting by creating a fingerprint in a virtual lab. They will use this fingerprint to solve a virtual crime. The virtual lab is interactive and goes through the step-by-step process of DNA fingerprinting
Create a DNA Fingerprint ( http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/sheppard/analyze.html )
Introduction:
1. DNA is unique for everyone. The only exception is if a person has what?
identical twins.
2. What are DNA fingerprints used for?
they are used to identify people, and for blood testing, like in a crime scene.
Part 1 “It Takes a Lickin”
3. What “crime” was committed?
someone ate the holographic lollipop.
4. What bodily fluid was removed from the “crime scene” to get DNA?
saliva
Part 2 “DNA Fingerprinting at the NOVA Lab”
5. What does a restriction enzyme do?
They cut the DNA into pieces.
6. What is agarose gel?
It is a slimy, JEllo-like gel that allows smaller DNA pieces to go through it quicker.
7. What is electrophoresis?
It moves molecules with an electric current.
8. Smaller fragments of DNA move ____________ than longer strands?
faster
9. Why do you need to place a nylon membrane over the gel?
To allow to move the DNA because the gel is hard to work with.
10. Probes attach themselves to __________
The complementary DNA
11. Which chemical in your “virtual lab” is radioactive?
The probes.
12. Sketch your DNA fingerprint.
3 thin lines, 2 blocks, 4 thin lines, 1 block, 1 thin line, 1 block
13. Based on your DNA fingerprint, who licked the lollipop?
Honey
Click on the Link “DNA Workshop” (if this link won't load, scroll down to the bottom where it says "try the non-java script version)
Once you’re there, go to the link “DNA Workshop Activity” and practice with DNA replication and protein synthesis.
Browse the DNA Workshop site.
14. What kinds of things could you do at the DNA workshop?
Replicate DNA, transcribe DNA to mRNA, and translate mRNA to proteins, which then creates a polypeptide.
Find an Article about DNA
Go to http://www.thegenesite.com/
15. Read an article about genetics at this site that you might find interesting, or use the "Search" box in the upper right hand corner to search for DNA fingerprinting.
Title of Article DNA Fingerprinting Author and Date WebMD, april, 2009
Summarize what the article was about. Write this in a paragraph format.
This article is about the health ramifications of DNA fingerprinting and why you would. You would to identify a body, test relation with thought parents, or to solve a crime. You may not be able to if you have had a blood transfusion in the past 3 months. To get this done, blood will be extracted from a vein. Minor discomfort may be experienced. Also, healthy tissue will help the clarity of the tests.
Thursday, November 4, 2010
On the left side of the screen is a navigation bar, click on the link to “MITOSIS” Read the text on this page and view the animation, you can slow down the video by clicking step by step through the phases.
1. Which stage does the following occur
Chromatin condenses into chromosomes prophase
Chromosomes align in center of cell. metaphase
Longest part of the cell cycle. anaphase
Nuclear envelope breaks down. prophase
Cell is cleaved into two new daughter cells. cytokinesis
Daughter chromosomes arrive at the poles. telophase
Watch the video carefully.
2. The colored chromosomes represent chromatids. There are two of each color because one is an exact duplicate of the other.
--How many chromosomes are visible at the beginning of mitosis? 92
-- How many are in each daughter cell at the end of mitosis? 46
--The little green T shaped things on the cell are: centrioles
-- What happens to the centrioles during mitosis? they go to the poles and connect all the spindle fibers to the chromosomes.
3 . Identify the stages of these cells:
Metaphase
Anaphase
Interphase
Another Mitosis Animation
Go to www.johnkyrk.com/mitosis.html
View the animation and sketch the cell in:
Prophase
nucleolus disappears then the centrioles go to the poles. after that, long green fibers called spindle fibers spread to the chromosomes.
Metaphase
the spindle fibers disconnect the the sister chromosomes at the centromere, then take the chromosomes to the centrioles.
Telophase
While the spindle fibers dissolve, two nuclei form at both sides. Then, the cells finally disconnect, and a new membrane forms.
Number, % of Cells:
Interphase: 20, 56%
Prophase: 10, 28%
Metaphase: 3, 8%
Anaphase: 2, 6%
Telophase: 1, 3%
Whitefish
View 1: Telophase
View 2: Metaphase
View 3: Interphase
View 4: Anaphase
View 5:
Onion
View 1: Anaphase
View 2: Metaphase
View 3: Prophase
View 4: Interphase
View 5: Anaphase
1. Which stage does the following occur
Chromatin condenses into chromosomes prophase
Chromosomes align in center of cell. metaphase
Longest part of the cell cycle. anaphase
Nuclear envelope breaks down. prophase
Cell is cleaved into two new daughter cells. cytokinesis
Daughter chromosomes arrive at the poles. telophase
Watch the video carefully.
2. The colored chromosomes represent chromatids. There are two of each color because one is an exact duplicate of the other.
--How many chromosomes are visible at the beginning of mitosis? 92
-- How many are in each daughter cell at the end of mitosis? 46
--The little green T shaped things on the cell are: centrioles
-- What happens to the centrioles during mitosis? they go to the poles and connect all the spindle fibers to the chromosomes.
3 . Identify the stages of these cells:
Metaphase
Anaphase
Interphase
Another Mitosis Animation
Go to www.johnkyrk.com/mitosis.html
View the animation and sketch the cell in:
Prophase
nucleolus disappears then the centrioles go to the poles. after that, long green fibers called spindle fibers spread to the chromosomes.
Metaphase
the spindle fibers disconnect the the sister chromosomes at the centromere, then take the chromosomes to the centrioles.
Telophase
While the spindle fibers dissolve, two nuclei form at both sides. Then, the cells finally disconnect, and a new membrane forms.
Number, % of Cells:
Interphase: 20, 56%
Prophase: 10, 28%
Metaphase: 3, 8%
Anaphase: 2, 6%
Telophase: 1, 3%
Whitefish
View 1: Telophase
View 2: Metaphase
View 3: Interphase
View 4: Anaphase
View 5:
Onion
View 1: Anaphase
View 2: Metaphase
View 3: Prophase
View 4: Interphase
View 5: Anaphase
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
Mendel's Experiments
First, I cross-hybradized the first and fifth parents, 2nd and 3rd, 2nd and 4th, 3rd and 4th, and the 1st and 3rd. In a lot of these experiments, the traits that made that plant stand out did not pass on completely. Obviously, their must have been an influence from the recessive traits in that plant.
Althoguh, some of the plants must have not been cross-hybridized before because they produced the same trait as their other plant.
As I look at pedigrees, I realize the dominancy of certain traits, but also the weaker, but still dominant, traits. For example, the pea shape of round was dominant at a ratio of 3:2, while purple to white, purple was dominant 10:0.
Pea Color: Yellow: White
10:0
10:0
10:0
10:0
10:0
3:2
Pea Shape: Round: Wrinkled
10:0
3:2
1:1
10:0
10:0
1:9
Pod Shape: Inflated: Constricted
10:0
10:0
10:0
3:2
3:7
2:3
Pod Color Green: Yellow
1:1
3:2
10:0
4:1
10:0
10:0
Flower Color: Purple: White
7:3
1:1
10:0
1:1
10:0
10:0
Plant Size: Tall: Dwarf
10:0
3:7
1:1
10:0
10:0
9:1
Flower Position: Axial: Terminal
10:0
10:0
10:0
10:0
10:0
7:3
Althoguh, some of the plants must have not been cross-hybridized before because they produced the same trait as their other plant.
As I look at pedigrees, I realize the dominancy of certain traits, but also the weaker, but still dominant, traits. For example, the pea shape of round was dominant at a ratio of 3:2, while purple to white, purple was dominant 10:0.
Pea Color: Yellow: White
10:0
10:0
10:0
10:0
10:0
3:2
Pea Shape: Round: Wrinkled
10:0
3:2
1:1
10:0
10:0
1:9
Pod Shape: Inflated: Constricted
10:0
10:0
10:0
3:2
3:7
2:3
Pod Color Green: Yellow
1:1
3:2
10:0
4:1
10:0
10:0
Flower Color: Purple: White
7:3
1:1
10:0
1:1
10:0
10:0
Plant Size: Tall: Dwarf
10:0
3:7
1:1
10:0
10:0
9:1
Flower Position: Axial: Terminal
10:0
10:0
10:0
10:0
10:0
7:3
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