Activity no. 1.

2 Essay
Name Garcia, Alanah Jane, A. Section BSMT2A
Directions:
Use your science textbook and other resources around the room to help
you complete the following, after each answer, indicate where you found
the answer (ex. Textbook, internet etc.)

1. Write s sentence explaining the relationship between the words DNA,

genes, chromosomes
Chromosomes are the structures made up of chromatin. Chromatin is
the threads of DNA that get condensed to form chromosomes. Genes
are the segments of DNA that code for proteins. Hence, each
chromosome is made up of DNA and contains many genes because
of segments of DNA.

2. Name three examples of genetic traits that you inherited from your
parents.
Hair color, blood type and eye color.

3. Name two traits that you acquire during your life.

Abdominal abs, reading and writing.

4. How are traits passed from parent to their offspring?

Parents pass on traits or characteristics, such as eye colour and
blood type, to their children through their genes. Each variation of a
gene is called an allele (pronounced ‘AL-eel’). These two copies of
the gene contained in your chromosomes influence the way your cells
work. The two alleles in a gene pair are inherited, one from each
parent.

5. Is gender an inherited or acquired trait?

Gender can be inherited from our social environment and not just
from genes, according to a new study.
6. Are humans alike or different?
All humans belong to the same species (Homo sapiens, meaning
'wise human'). Technically, this implies we can exchange our genes
with each another. Biologically, it means any two humans are
essentially the same.
7. Do all humans look alike?
We have over 99% of the same DNA, but that 1% is what causes us
to look different from each other. The 1% of those genes are the
instructions for eye color, hair color, head shape and face shape,
height and weight, fingernail shape and ear shape.

8. Are some traits more common than others?

Whether or not a trait is common has to do with how many copies of
that gene version (or allele) are in the population. It has little or
nothing to do with whether the trait is dominant or recessive. An
example of this is the eye color.

9. Do boys have certain traits?

Traits traditionally viewed as masculine in Western society include
strength, courage, independence, leadership, and assertiveness.

10. How unique is each human?

It’s often said that humans are 99.9% identical and what makes us
unique is a measly 0.1% of our genome. Humans are unusual
animals by any stretch of the imagination. Our special anatomy and
abilities, such as big brains and opposable thumbs, have enabled us
to change our world dramatically and even launch off the planet.

11. Do humans look like their parents?

The tens of thousands of genes that are inherited from the mother
and father constitute the genome. This genetic link to the parents
accounts for family resemblance such as shared eye color or
freckles.
12. Which traits are inherited?
We possess a unique set of traits. While some traits are governed
by genes which are inherited from parents to the offsprings, there
are traits that are acquired through observing, learning, most of
which are determined by a combination of environmental factors
and genes such as earlobe attachment, dimples and curly hair.

13. Which traits are acquired?

Acquired traits include things such as calluses on fingers, larger
muscle size from exercise or from avoiding predators. Behaviors
that help an organism survive would also be considered acquired
characteristics most of the time.

14. What evidence suggests that humans are similar?

Besides similarities in anatomy and behavior, our close biological
kinship with other primate species is indicated by DNA evidence. It
confirms that our closest living biological relatives are chimpanzees
and bonobos, with whom we share many traits.

15. What evidence suggests that humans are different?

Many differences between individuals are undoubtedly because of
differences in their genes. Although we differ from each other in a
very tiny proportion of our DNA, we differ by a large number of DNA
bases