Thursday, May 13, 2010

How is hereditary information passed from Parent to offspring?

Biology assignment. I might just be over thinking this but I don't know the answer.How is hereditary information passed from Parent to offspring?
Sexual reproduction. Good place to start thinking about.How is hereditary information passed from Parent to offspring?
by means of gamete (in the form of genes which is made of genetic materials i.e. DNA)
every cell in your body, including sperm and eggs have DNA. The DNA has the code that decides what your body looks and acts like. when you are created in your mothers womb your father and mothers dna combine. during that process the DNA changes a little bit. thats why you dont look exactly like your parents, just similar. from there, that new code reproduces and makes you
Gametes...your father gives you 1/2 in the form of the sperm and your mother gives you the other 1/2 in the form of the egg. When fertilization occurs the halves combine which gives you the DNA you have now!
Fusion of the gametes, the haploid cells from both the male and the female parent (gametes) to form a zygote, which will be diploid. The zygote wil be having a set of chromosomes from both the parents . During the process of cell division the chromosomes undergo crossing over and the genes on the chromosomes from both the male and the female parent leads to the exchange of genetic information between the homologous chromosomes and thus leads to the passing on of the hereditary information from the parents to the offspring . Hence the offspring wil be having the characters of both the parents.
Well, your mother produced the egg:


In your moms ovaries a process called meiosis occurred. in meiosis the parent cell, just like any other human body cell, starts out with 46 chromosomes (chromosomes being the things that code your parents genetic info) and through a series of phases, you'll end up with 4 daughter cells each with 23 chromosomes. That's 4 eggs that are carrying your mothers genetic info.





Then your father produced the sperm:


Meiosis also occurs in your fathers testis resulting in 4 sperm cells that are each carrying 23 chromosomes.





Now when your father and your mother ';made you,'; for the lack of a better term, the first sperm that got your you mothers egg fused with the egg making something called a ZYGOTE which will have 46 chromosomes that code your both your mothers and father genetic info, then the traits that are dominant, will be expressed. These expressed traits determine how your hair, eyes, face, skin color, and anything else about you that's unique comes out.





The thing i forgot to mention was the act of crossing-over, this occurs between chromosomes during meiosis, but that's getting a little too in depth...and that just diversifies variability...
Hereditary information is contained in genes, located in the chromosomes of each cell. Each gene carries a single unit of information. An inherited trait of an individual can be determined by one or many genes, and a single gene can influence more than one trait. A human cell contains many thousands of different genes.





Hope this helps!

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