WHY DO YOU LOOK THE WAY YOU DO? Genetics

Physical Traits Can be seen by others Eye color, hair color, height, left handed Acquired Traits Learned skills Playing a sport, riding a bike, playing a musical instrument Behavioral Traits Instinctual actions Nest building and migration

Physical Traits 1. Earlobes- Attached or Detached 2. Can You roll your tongue? 3. Do you have dimples? 4. Left or right handed 5. Straight or Curly Hair 6. Cleft Chin 7. Hand clasp- right or left thumb on top? 8. Color Blindness

9. Eye Color 10. Widow’s Peak 11. Finger stacking 12. Hitchhiker Thumb Physical Traits cont..

What many consider to be the greatest discovery of the 20th century is the discovery of DNA by Francis Crick and James Watson. What are common uses of DNA today?  DNA evidence from crime scenes  genetic engineering of plants  cloning of research animals  genetic screening for hereditary diseases  paternity tests The shape of DNA is a double helix. It is made of a sugar phosphate backbone and nitrogen base pairs. DNA is our unique blueprint. The base pairs A, C, G, and T make a code for our body to produce proteins.

A section of DNA on a chromosome is a gene. We have over 25,000 genes on our 23 pairs of chromosomes.