Thursday 27 September 2012

6.1 Meiosis Questions:

1. What is the purpose of Meiosis?
Answer: The purpose of Meiosis is to create new cells with half the amount of chromosomes. Without meiosis the sperm cell and the egg cells joining during fertilization it would produce to time the amount of chromosomes instead of one half of the original number of chromosomes.

2. How do cells at the end of Meiosis differ from the cells at the end of Mitosis?
Answer: In Meiosis after the DNA replicates it goes into to daughter cells. After that those two daughter cells split into two groups of two daughter cells, meaning there is now four daughter cells. At the end of
Mitosis it is different than Meiosis. At the end of Mitosis, there are two daughter cells unlike Meiosis.       









3. What is a Gamete?
Answer: A gamete is what carries haploid chromosomes. These gametes are specialized for reproduction. In animals gametes in males are called sperm cells. In females the gamete cells are called egg cells. The gametes are necessary for reproduction.

4. How are diploid cells and haploid cells different? What human cells are examples of each?
Answer: Diploid cells are different from haploid cells. Diploid is having two sets of homologous chromosomes. Haploid is having one set of daughter cells. (4 daughter cells). A human example of Haploid cell is the sprem and egg cells. A human diploid cell carries two sets of chromosomes.

5. How many phases are there in Meiosis? Why is each phase important?
Answer: There are 5 phases in Meiosis. These phases are, Prophase, Metaphase, Anaphase, Telophase and Cytokenisis. Each phase is important as if one stage was missing cells would not be able to reproduce which means no new cells would be made. Each phase changes a part of the cell. Say if there was no Cytokenisis the cells would not be able to separate into more daughter cells.

6. Why do two brother look different from each other if they came from the same parents?
Answer: A person has a set of chromosomes. One from their mum and one from their dad that join together to make that child. The two halves are joined together and the middle of each chromosome has genes and every DNA has two copies of each gene one of those genes is more dominant that the other. The dominant gene is what makes everyone different. The gender of the child is random. You could say nature chooses one half and that is the gender. of traits are taken from the mother and father. Also  This means that every sperm cell contains a random mix of the father's parents' genes. The same thing happens when forming eggs. Therefore, each child that a couple produces is a random mix of the four grandparents' genes. 
















Friday 14 September 2012

Mutated Animal Project: Josie And Jordyn


Animal: Kangaroo Rat. Climate: Desert
1. Bigger arms resulting in it being easier to dig holes in the ground to get away from the many predators it has. It will also make then be able to jump a little higher with being able to use their arms to take off and jump higher than they already can also making it easier to get away from larger predators and large slow predators.
2. Negative mutation would be to decrease the ears. Decreasing the ears makes it harder to hear predators approaching. The Kangaroo rat would be soon extinct if it had small ears and bad hearing.
3.  The colour of the rat would be changed. It will not affect the survival. The Rat might be black, or white, a darker brown or grey. Other than the appearance it will not be affected in any way.

1. This is a kangaroo rat with no ears.

2. This is if the kangaroo rat had long arms.


3. This is an example of a Neutral Mutation. This Kangaroo rat is Grey/White and not the normal light brown colour.
Before:                                                                       







After:








 By: Jordyn Reeves and Josie Mrak


Thursday 13 September 2012

Is It Right To Change Someone's or Somethings DNA?

Is It Right To Change Someone's or Somethings DNA?

Depending on who your are and how you think, you might have a different perspective  than other people. In my opinion I think for a human, unless you need to change it to save their lives I don't think you should. Because if they do not need it it might change the quality of the persons life or how they may act or feel about certain things. Another thing that may happen if the DNA is changed is tha the protiens could be made incorrectly causing the proper proteins to not get to the proper place resulting in sickness or death. For animals, depending on the reason it might be ok. If it is a test, using one animal might be ok. Although if it may be fatal I think it is not worth it. Changing the DNA might be needed in some circumstances but if they is not a valid reason I think it shouldn't be done for the safety and well being of the person, thing or animal. DNA could be changed and become not in the right shape which could affect the person, animal or thing. Overall I do not support this idea.