Week of 9/24 to 9/28: How we know earth and genetics

9/24/2018

Week of 9/24 to 9/28: How we know earth and genetics

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dna combination

We have gone over a few ways in which cells have learned to work together all on their own and have even adopted photosynthetic algae to move in the direction of being photosynthetic themselves. Sometimes we apply pressure for the DNA to be in a species that it would never want to be in.

We see if the DNA is in the plant through PCR Electrophoresis:

agrobacterium tumefaciens

(updated scientific name Rhizobium radiobacter, synonym Agrobacteriumradiobacter) is the causal agent of crown gall disease (the formation of tumours) in over 140 species of eudicots.
It is a rod-shaped, Gram-negative soil bacterium.
Ti Plasmid: A Ti or tumour inducing plasmid is a plasmid that often, but not always, is a part of the genetic equipment that Agrobacterium tumefaciens and Agrobacterium rhizogenes use to transduce their genetic material to plants
GMO plants we currently have: corn, soybean, onion, sugar beets (any sugar that is not from cane), rapeseed (canola oil), wheat (not official but due to cross contamination)

genetic engineering is different from plant breeding

it takes a long time for plants and species to adapt and change

plant breeding has taken thousands of years
people have been farming corn for an estimated 12,000
the Earth is estimated to be about 4.5 billion years old

Radiometric Dating: The use of radioactive isotopes as a measure for determining the age of a rock or fossil

Radioactive isotope: an unstable form of an element that decays into another element by radiation, that is, by emitting energetic particles

Half-Life: the amount of time it takes for one half of a substance to decay

Uranium-238: has a half life of 4.5 billion years

Potassium-40: has a half life of 1.3 billion years

Stromatolites: are about 3.5 billion years old, calcareous mound built up of layers of lime-secreting cyanobacteria and trapped sediment, found in Precambrian rocks as the earliest known fossils, and still being formed in lagoons in Australasia.

Prokaryotes: about 3.5 billion years ago, a microscopic single-celled organism that has neither a distinct nucleus with a membrane nor other specialized organelles.

Prokaryotes include the bacteria and cyanobacteria.

what alters genes

Mutagen: any chemical or physical agent that can damage DNA by changing its nucleotide sequence

Carcinogen: Any chemical agent that causes cancer by damaging DNA, carcinogens are a type of mutagen.

Proto-oncogene: a gene that codes for a protein that helps cells divide normally, signal cells to progress through the cell cycle at the appropriate time. Mutation in these genes causes them to be overstimulated, causing too much cell division,

Tumor Suppressor Genes: signal cells to pause the cell to fix mistakes, mutation in these genes cause them to be under expressed, allowing damaged cells to divide inappropriately. Genes that code for proteins that monitor and check cell cycle progression. When these genes mutate, tumor suppressor proteins lose normal function.

Oncogene: a mutated and overactive form of a proto-oncogene. Oncogene drive cells to divide continually.

Meiosis: A specialized type of cell division that generates unique haploid gametes. Generates sex cells.

Gamete: specialized reproductive cells that carry one copy of each chromosome, sperm are male gametes, egg are female gametes

Haploid: having only one copy of every chromosome

Mitosis: a type of cell division that results in two daughter cells each having the same number and kind of chromosomes as the parent nucleus, typical of ordinary tissue growth.

genetics vocabulary

Gene: A sequence of DNA that contains the information to make at least one protein

Gene Expression: The process of using DNA instructions to make proteins.

Genotype: Genetic makeup of an organism

Phenotype: the physical qualities of an organism including observable or not observable traits

Alleles: alternative versions of the same gene that have different nucleotide sequences.

Recessive Allele: an allele that reveals itself in the phenotype only if the organism has two copies of that allele

Dominant Allele: an allele that can mask the presence of a recessive allele

Heterozygous: having two different alleles

Homozygous: having two identical alleles

Punnett Square: a diagram used to determine probabilities of offspring having particular genotypes, given the genotypes of the parents.

Carrier: an individual who is heterozygous for a particular gene of interest, and therefore can pass on the recessive allele without showing any of its effects

Polygenic trait: a trait whose phenotype is determined by the interaction among alleles of more than one gene

Autosomes: paired chromosomes present in both males and females; all chromosomes except the X and Y chromosomes

Sex Chromosomes: Paired chromosomes that differ between males and females, XX in females, XY in males

Y Chromosome: of two chromosomes in humans. The presence of a Y chromosome signals the male developmental pathway during fetal development

X Chromosomes: one of the two sex chromosomes in humans

gender diversity affirmed in ancient cultures

Mishnah: an authoritative collection of exegetical material embodying the oral tradition of Jewish law and forming the first part of the Talmud. The Mishnah or Mishna is the first major written collection of the Jewish oral traditions known as the "Oral Torah". It is also the first major work of Rabbinic literature. Transmitted in the aftermath of the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE.
The construction was completed in 515 B.C.E.

gender diversity was recognized

In addition to zachar, male, and nekevah, female, there are four other genders/sexes that the Rabbis recognize:

Zachar/זָכָר: This term is derived from the word for a pointy sword and refers to a phallus. It is usually translated as “male” in English.

Nekeivah/נְקֵבָה: This term is derived from the word for a crevice and probably refers to a vaginal opening. It is usually translated as “female” in English.

Androgynos/אַנְדְּרוֹגִינוֹס: A person who has both “male” and “female” sexual characteristics. 149 references in Mishna and Talmud (1st-8th Centuries CE); 350 in classical midrash and Jewish law codes (2nd -16th Centuries CE).

Tumtum/ טֻומְטוּם A person whose sexual characteristics are indeterminate or obscured. 181 references in Mishna and Talmud; 335 in classical midrash and Jewish law codes.

Ay’lonit/איילונית: A person who is identified as “female” at birth but develops “male” characteristics at puberty and is infertile. 80 references in Mishna and Talmud; 40 in classical midrash and Jewish law codes.

Saris/סריס: A person who is identified as “male” at birth but develops “female” characteristics as puberty and/or is lacking a penis. A saris can be “naturally” a saris (saris hamah), or become one through human intervention (saris adam). 156 references in mishna and Talmud; 379 in classical midrash and Jewish law codes.

source: reformjudaism.org

sojourngsd.org/blog/sixgenders

gender diversity in native american tribes

Native Americans had no set of rules that men and women had to abide by in order to be considered a “normal” member of their tribe.
Genders recognized: Female, Male, Two Spirit Female, Two Spirit Male and Transgendered.
The Navajo refer to two spirits as nádleehí (one who is transformed)
Lakota is winkté (indicative of a male who has a compulsion to behave as a female)
niizh manidoowag (two spirit)
Ojibwe, hemaneh (half man, half woman)

Osh-Tisch, spiritual leader and warrior of Crow Nation was born a male and married a female, but adorned himself in women’s clothing and lived daily life as a female.

We’wha (1849-1896), of the Zuni nation. We’wha was biologically male and engendered with a female spirit.

"The Two Spirit culture of Native Americans was one of the first things Europeans worked to destroy and cover up. According to people like American artist George Catlin, the Two Spirit tradition had to be eradicated before it could go into history books. Catlin said the tradition: “must be extinguished before it can be more fully recorded.”

"Spanish Catholic monks destroyed most of the Aztec codices to eradicate traditional Native beliefs and history, including those that told of the Two Spirit tradition.” As a result, Native Americans were forced to dress and act according to newly designated gender roles."

References:

Muxe

In Zapotec cultures of Oaxaca, a muxe is an assigned male at birth individual who dresses and behaves in ways otherwise associated with the female gender; they may be seen as a third gender. Some marry women and have children while others choose men as sexual or romantic partners.

https://theculturetrip.com/north-america/mexico/articles/a-brief-history-of-muxe-mexicos-third-gender/

more examples

In indigenous Hawaii, before its colonization, there was a long standing multiple gender tradition, where the mahu could be a male or female biologically, but decide to inhabit a gender role either opposite theirs, somewhere in between the traditional sex roles, or even both masculine and feminine roles. Instead of being written off as outcasts, as persons of atypical gender identities often are today, these mahu were revered in their social roles as sacred educators of ancient traditions
In ancient Incan culture, the Incas worshipped a “dual gendered god” known as chuqui chinchay, who could only be attended and honored by third gender shamans or servants who wore androgynous clothing as “a visible sign of a third space that negotiated between the masculine and the feminine, the present and the past, the living and the dead.”
Among the Sakalavas of Madagascar, there is a third gender group reserved especially for little boys thought to have a feminine appearance and personality. These boys, rather than labeled as “gay men” after maturing and experiencing the upbringing of a male, are instead raised by their parents as girls from a young age.

https://sites.psu.edu/evolutionofhumansexuality/2014/02/19/third-genders-new-concept-or-old/

gender diversity has been part of humanity for as long as we have existed, sex of an organism is not as simple as xy vs xx and gender is not as matter of body parts so all we can do is respect the identity of the people around us

genetics

Biology book ch 11, pg 209

Meiosis: a specialized type of cell division that generates genetically unique haploid gametes.

Zygote: a cell that is capable of developing into an adult organism. Formed when an egg is fertilizes by sperm.

Cross-over: gene swapping between maternal and paternal chromosomes

Recombination: the stage in meiosis where maternal and paternal chromosomes pair and physically exchange DNA segments

Independent Assortment: the principle that alleles of different genes are distributed independently of one another during meiosis. If one gene ends up in one gamete, the other gene is likely to end up in another gamete.

Polygenic trait: a trait whose phenotype is determined by the interaction among alleles of more than one gene.

Multifactorial Inheritance: an interaction between genes and the environment that contributes to a phenotype or trait

X-linked trait: a phenotype determined by an allele on an x chromosome

Incomplete dominance: a form of inheritance in which heterozygotes have a phenotype that is intermediate between homozygous dominant and homozygous recessive

Codominance: a form of inheritance in which both alleles contribute equally to the phenotype

Mutation has most likely led to diversity

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