Biology Essay Questions Essays

Biology Essay Questions Essays Biology Essay Questions Paper Biology Essay Questions Paper In biology there are terms that are often used together and yet are barely understood and made distinct from each other. One such pair of terms are genes and alleles. The main difference between the two may be realized through the topic of inheritance in which genes are considered the basic unit where inheritance is coded; while alleles are merely the variation in genes pertaining to whether a gene is dominant or recessive (Purves, Sadava, Orians, and Heller 191). In relation to this, homozygote and heterozygote are terms which are also often misunderstood. To distinguish between the two, it is important to remember that considering the pairing of alleles, a homozygote has a pair that is either both dominant and both recessive while a heterozygote has a pair which contains both dominant and recessive units (Purves, Sadava, Orians, and Heller 191). Genenotype and phenotype are terms that also often cause confusion. The genotype is basically the genetic characteristic of an organism, while the phenotype is the physical manifestation of the genotype (Purves, Sadava, Orians, and Heller 192). Genes found on one chromosome are considered as linked since such genes are commonly found together at a particular portion of the chromosome (Purves, Sadava, Orians, and Heller 210). This affects how such genes are passed on during reproduction. In fact, genes that are considered to be linked are often expected to be passed on to the offspring as a bundle rather than as individual units (Purves, Sadava, Orians, and Heller 210). However, there are cases wherein even liked genes are separated during the underlying processes of meiosis. The reason for this is that genetic recombination occurs during meiosis. Specifically, during the middle portions of prophase I, homologs are arranged side by side through the process of synapsis; and later on near the end of prophase I, crossing over occurs in which parts of the homologs may be transferred between one another hence raising the chances of linked genes to be separated (Purves, Sadava, Orians, and Heller 178). In the data analysis exercise, a table is presented comparing the percentages or proportion of college graduates among relatives of people with bipolar disorder as compared to those without bipolar disorder. Striking information which may be derived from the table is that those with bipolar disorders surpass those without in terms of the percentage of fathers with a college degree. In addition, the table also presents the fact that if one has bipolar disorder then it is most possible that his or her brother does have a college degree while his or her grandmother may be generally expected to have the least chances of having obtained a college degree. In this sense, the table is indicative that in a broad sense, individuals with a bipolar disorder are most likely to have immediate relatives that have a college degree, in comparison to those that do not have a bipolar disorder. Hence, in general, the study that aimed to link intelligence with bipolar disorder is basically driven with the main assumption that mood disorders are often present among individuals that are of high levels of intelligence. Work Cited Saddava, David, Craig Heller, Gordon H. Orians, and William K. Purves. Life: the Science of Biology. 7th Edition. Sunderland, MA: Sinauer Associates and W.H. Freeman, 2003.