Ruiz Elizabeth

Period 5 Biology
January 18, 2011
Activity 17.3 Rearranging Rice Genes

A. Purpose
Find out how you inherit genes from your parents.

B. introduction
A trait is determined by one gene made up of two alleles. For sexually reproducing organisms,
each gene is composed of one allele from one parent and one allele from the second parent of opposite
sex. Asexually reproducing organisms have only one parent. Each allele in every gene comes from that
called the parent.
Plant height is an important trait for high-yield rice production. Plant height is determined by
the single gene called the “semi-dwarf” gene. Semi-dwarf plants are sturdier and shorter than rice plants
that are tall. They survive better and produce more rice. The semi-dwarf allele for the gene is recessive.
sd1 is the symbol that represents the semi-dwarf allele to plant breeders. SD1 represents the tall allele
of the gene to plant breeders.

C. Procedure
1) Working with your partner, place the four rice allele cards face up on the desk or table. One partner,
who will represent a homozygous tall plant, should take the two cards with the tall symbol “T”. The
other partner, who will represent homozygous semi-dwarf plant, should take the other two cards each
with the symbol “t”.
2) Each partner should close their eyes , shuffle their two cards, place one of the cards on the desk and
then open their eyes.
3) The two cards on the desk (one from you and one from your partner) represent the pair of alleles
inherited by the offspring of a cross between the semi-dwarf and the tall plant. Record the genotype of
the offspring.
4) Repeat steps 1-3 nine more times.
5) Make a dada table to record the genotype and the phenotype of each of your 10 offspring.
6) Report your data to your teacher. Data from all groups will be used to determine the total number of
each genotype and phenotype in the first generation offspring.

D. Results
Offspring Genotype Phenotype
1 Tt Tall
2 Tt Tall
3 Tt Tall
4 Tt Tall
5 Tt Tall
6 Tt Tall
 7 Tt Tall
8 Tt Tall
9 Tt Tall
10 Tt Tall

E. Analysis
1) What type of reproduction-sexual or asexual- was modeled in the procedure? Explain.
Sexual; The procedure started with two parents of opposite sex: Male and Female.
2) List the genotype(s) of the offspring produced during this simulation.
Offspring 1-10 all had the heterozygous dominant gene Tt.
3) List the phenotype(s) of the offspring produced during this simulation.
Offspring 1-10 are all tall.
4) Explain why only these genotypes and phenotypes were possible.
When crossed, homozygous dominant (TT) and homozygous recessive (tt) only have one possible result
(Tt).it results with a tall phenotype because the tall dominant trait will mask the semi-dwarf recessive
trait. TT x tt = Tt

F. Conclusion
Today I learned that “T” is a dominant allele. “T” represents the tall trait in rice plants. I also
learned that “t” is a recessive allele. The allele “t” stands for the semi-dwarf trait. A trait is determined
by one gene made up of two alleles. For sexually reproducing organisms, each gene is composed of one
allele from one parent and one allele from the second parent of opposite sex. Asexually reproducing
organisms have only one parent. Each allele in every gene comes from that called the parent.
Plant height is an important trait for high-yield rice production. Plant height is determined by the single
gene called the “semi-dwarf” gene. Semi-dwarf plants are sturdier and shorter than rice plants that are
tall. They survive better and produce more rice. The semi-dwarf allele for the gene is recessive. sd1 is
the symbol that represents the semi-dwarf allele to plant breeders. SD1 represents the tall allele of the
gene to plant breeders.