1 Subsidiary Students If you are taking this module as a subsidiary option (i.e. not a part of your main degree course) please remember that your essay is due in by noon on Friday December 10th. Essays need to be handed in (in person) to the school office in the Psychology Building. When you hand in your essay you will receive a cover sheet - make sure you fill this in. You should have received essay titles from your tutor. Please make sure that you know your tutor’s name and include this on the cover sheet. [Non-subsidiary students (e.g. Psychology, PCN, Psychology & Philosophy) may have different deadlines for this essay that will have been given to them by their personal tutor in Psychology.]

2 “The Evolution Ballot” Cast your vote on: What makes us “uniquely human”? Understanding of other minds? Linguistic abilities? Culture? Other? Neural Bases for these unique skills?

3 Genetics Gaia Scerif Room 426, Ext Office Hours: Thurs 12-2

4 Genes and Cognition Can genetic variability account for uniquely human cognitive processes, such as language?

5 Outline Mendelian laws of inheritanceMendelian laws of inheritance Beyond Mendelian lawsBeyond Mendelian laws Cellular basis of inheritanceCellular basis of inheritance The Human Genome ProjectThe Human Genome Project Beyond the Human Genome ProjectBeyond the Human Genome Project

6 Mendelian Laws: Of men, mice and … peas Gregor Mendel ( ) Focused on seven traits of peas, each with two characteristics Crossed the true breeding parents, then their offsprings (F1 generation), then the offsprings of F1 (F2)

7 First Law of Inheritance: Segregation dominant recessive There are two elements of heredity for each trait and these two elements segregate during reproduction. One of these is dominant, the other recessive

8 Second Law of Inheritance: Independent Assortment Varieties of each trait sort independently of each other.

9 Cellular Basis of Inheritance: DNA

10 Molecular Genetics I: DNA -> mRNA DNA Coding strand mRNA A) DNA is transcribed into mRNA Nucleotides (base pairs) DNA: Adenine (A) --- Thymine (T) Guanine (G) ---- Cytosine (C) mRNA Adenine (A) --- Uracyl (U) Guanine (G) ---- Cytosine (C)

11 Molecular Genetics II: mRNA ->Proteins 1. mRNA binds to ribosomes 2. Amino acids are paired to triplets of bases on mRNA to produce proteins B) mRNA is translated into amino acid sequences that compose proteins mRNA A G G U U C U C C A A G A.A. 1A.A. 2

12 Beyond Mendelian Laws Not all patterns of inheritance follow Mendel’s laws: 1. Genes on the X chromosome: some recessive traits are most prevalently expressed in males vs females 2. New mutations emerge in the population. These also do not follow Mendelian laws 3. Complex traits do not follow Mendelian rules (e.g., schizophrenia, depression)

13 HGP/draft2000/ Autosomes: 22 pairsHeterosomoes: 1 pair (X and Y)

14 What makes us “uniquely human”? Is an understanding of genetics sufficient to understand human behaviour and variability? Ethical implications: e.g., Insurance issues Beyond the Human Genome Project

15 Summary Mendelian laws of inheritance: segregation and independent assortmentMendelian laws of inheritance: segregation and independent assortment Cellular basis of inheritance: DNA transcription and RNA translationCellular basis of inheritance: DNA transcription and RNA translation Beyond Mendelian laws: X-linked traitsBeyond Mendelian laws: X-linked traits The Human Genome Project: identifying human gene structureThe Human Genome Project: identifying human gene structure Beyond the Human Genome Project: Ethical implicationsBeyond the Human Genome Project: Ethical implications