In Which We Genetically Analyze Greg and Olga

     Greg and Olga are a young-ish couple who are ready to have children, but with their family history, they are worried that their child might have a disease. They hired a geneticist to analyze and study their family based on letters they had written about their known relatives, health conditions and relationships. With this information, I have been able to put together their family tree (pedigree) to show the different variables.

     As the key more or less clearly shows, only a few of their family members have been infected with FVIII and MD. One couple showed that FVIII skipped a generation, meaning Greg and Olga's child will most likely not have that, as both have a sibling with FVIII. As for MD, It hasn't seemed to carry over at all, so as a conclusion, Greg and Olga will most likely have an FVIII and MD free child.

     I did my own tiny pedigree based on the ability to taste a chemical on a paper or not (this taste is only obtainable if you carry this certain gene). I tested the family I could reach and then made a larger pedigree for visual aid. 

This here is the key to show what's going on in the upcoming Pedigree.

     

     As you can see from my pedigree, my immediate blood family can all taste the nasty paper, therefore the gene required must be dominant and prevalent in my family. Most everyone in the class could taste it, as well as my adopted father. It must be a common gene in most people!

In Which I Discuss Genetics

     We might not all have the working knowledge of genes that a geneticist with a PhD would have, but we still have a general knowledge. "He gets his eyes from his mother!" "Toby's freckles are a family trait!" "Well, I inherited my curly hair from my mother!" We're talking like scientist without even knowing it. Now some things (like rolling your 'r's' and musical ability) are kinda sketchy, as it is not yet proven that those things can be inherited through genetics (i.e. it's all hokey). As for genes and DNA, how does it all work?
     To get a general idea of what genetics are I have made a sort of graphic organizer to show you the basics.

     Also relating to genetics (specifically Alleles and genes passed on) is the Punnet square. Each little phenotype for parts of DNA and genetics is determined by these little boxes. As was listed in the results, the dominant is Capitalized (or mixed) and recessive is lower case. A punnet square shows all the possibilities and outcomes. Pretend the flowers and genotypes represent the possession of freckles and the punnet square may make more sense.

     So with a little vocabulary and a hint of working knowledge, follow this link to see how this applies to makin babies!

In Which I Explain Mitosis and Meiosis

     You are fully aware that in order to be considered life, you must be able to do a few simple processes; those being ordered structure, growing, use of energy, responsiveness, change and adaption, and finally- reproduction.
      That last process is going to be our main focus, specifically the reproduction of cells. In generalization, cells go through a process that allows them to copy and eventually split themselves to make to new cells... and inevitably start the cycle all over again. It goes through the processes of Interphase (centrosomes and nucleus line up on opposing sides of the cell), Prophase (alike pieces of chromosomes connect in the familiar x shape called centromeres with miotic spindles), Prometaphase (centrosomes go to either side and start to attatch and organize the chromosomes), Metaphase (Chromosomes are completely aligned), Anaphase (miotic spindles pull apart the two halves of the centromeres to their respective sides of the cell), Telophase (A divider is put down between the two halves and we begin to see the full splitting of two cells) and Cytokinesis (the process of the complete split into two bodies).

I know how hard that was, so this image is going to show you everything I just said; but it will prove that I didn't even have to type that... Enjoy.

     This little image shows the length of time each of these processes take in order to fully complete the cell cycle.

     With the wordiness aside, we can talk about Meiosis a little bit and what is the difference between the two.  Meiosis has a slightly different process to achieve the same product. But Meiosis happens in life (humans yeh) and mitosis happens in plants (tulips yeh). This image is going to sum this all up nicely and save you some reading.

In Which We Discuss Designer Babies

     With all this talk of genetics and what we pass on to our children, you may be curious as to how we can use that to make the 'perfect child'. We can sort of reach that right now actually through the process of Artificial Insemination (A.I). This process takes the sperm cell of a male donor and is medically inserted into the awaiting mother/customer's egg. Alternatively, women can be surrogates (basically an oven on loan for the natural parent's ((or donor)) sperm and egg) and egg donors. 

36.4% of pregnancies happen this way. True fact.

     When looking at sperm donors extensive profiles and features, those in the A.I. program can choose very closely what they want in their child (Blonde hair, green eyes, freckles, musical or sport ability). There is one organization that only takes Nobel Prize winners sperm donations. Now an interview with the mother of one of these Nobel Prize sperms is a dog breeder (which must make big money because I'm sure that sperm is super expensive) and she lives in a small little home with her grown up Nobel Sperm baby. This fairly young man has a high IQ, but appears to have little interest in using it to benefit  the rest of the world. He plays sitar.

Totally not actually the Sperm Boy but really... You're glad you got to see this picture.

     As for the future, scientists would like to justify the altering of baby genes as a way to save our species from fatal illnesses. Though considerably less selfish than designing babies for beauty, we can't just live and let be, LET THERE BE NO MORE DISEASE! Science may be pretty close to this, but that's why we need these things. One day we may be able to perfectly engineer every human being... Buy then how could we be unique?......Well what is science without a little controversy eh?

     People consider genetic altering (and even occasionally A.I.) to be a sin, a way of playing God more or less. In the scientific sense, all that is happening is the placing and moving of different parts of a gene. It's a great concept that can one day remove cancer or awful genetic diseases from our human make-up!

In Which My Genes Create a Child

     After learning all the necessary information for understanding genetics, I am ready to pass on my genetic code to a lucky little munchkin of my own... not literally but in theory! With the aid of Senon's genes, I was able to 'create' our son: Leeon Eugene Frentress III. With a nifty hand-out, were were able to sort out our genotypes and coin flip to determine Leeon's Phenotype.






    Some of this image may look like wibbly wobbly to you, so I will pre-explain! Big letter is dominant and little letter is recessive (acting as a sort of punnett square). If you do not have one of the listed features your letter pairing will be double lower case. If you do have a feature listed (i.e. detached earlobes) You will put down a capital letter first and then flip a coin to determine whether the second letter is lower case or capitalized. Using the quick punnett square method, you can then determine the baby's genotype! Awesome!

This is some high quality nonsense. 

     Here is a picture I drew to show you what my little Leeon would look like in about his 20's. Play match up with the genotype paper to see what I did(n't) miss and make you feel like a genetic genius!

One in black and white, for it is easier to see. One in color so you know all the colored stuff on the genotype paper.

 

Thus concludes my post about my own child and the prospect of what he might look like. Enjoy your new genetic prowess.