A.

Pedigree of Inheritance of Hair type

B. Pedigree of Inheritance of ability to roll tongue

The students will examine some human traits that are fairly simple and that follow the Mendelian
pattern of inheritance. Most of the traits are much more complex, including many genes or interactions
among genes. For example, the color of the hair is determined by at least four genes, each one coding
for the production of melanin, a brown pigment. Because the effect of these genes is cumulative, the
color of the hair can range from blond (little melanin) to very dark brown (much melanin). Human traits
are most interesting to each individual. The traits in this activity exhibit Mendelian inheritance. For each,
the students were asked to construct a pedigree of at least three generations of the family or our own
family.

Genetics is a field of biology that studies how traits are passed from parents to their offspring. The
passing of traits from parents to offspring is known as heredity; therefore, genetics is the study of
heredity. Genetics is about family histories. All individuals inherit the genetic information specifying
their structure and function from their parents.

On the other hand, pedigrees can be valuable when taking a broader view of gene expression,
phenotypic variability, and patterns of transmission. Pedigrees can yield insights that single mating
examples fail to provide. That is especially true for human genetics, where experimental matings typical
of model organism studies cannot be performed. Pedigrees are a simple way to summarize a lot of
information about genetic relationships.