Genetics and Meiosis

In this class we furthered our knowledge of genetics with alleles, as mentioned in the previous blog, and looked at the process of meiosis.  Meiosis is the process of your parents genes copying half of their traits and creating a new cell, a sex gamete.  These sex gametes are only supposed to have 23 traits each so that when they meet there is 46, the offspring's traits.  I say "supposed to have" because sometimes occasionally an extra trait will be coded in to the gamete and this can cause genetic disorders such as down syndrome.  The 23 traits that go into each of your parent's gametes are random, your mom and dad could give b recessive for blonde hair but they both might have brown hair.  This is where the punnett squares come in, if they are both carriers then there is that 1/4 chance you will be recessive-recessive.  But if they had four children, there would not necessarily be 1 BB, 2 Bb, and 1 bb.  This is because the process of selecting genes is randomized, yes the percentage outcome is still fairly accurate but, it will not be exact in this situation.  This is how meiosis works, and this is how your parents passed on their genes to you.