Unit 4 Reflection

This unit was about the cell cycle, genetics, The cell cycle is a series of steps that take place when a cell duplicates or reproduces. Three reasons for the cell cycle is reproduction, growth and development, and cell and tissue repair. There are two types of reproduction, sexual and asexual. In asexual reproduction , there is only one parent. All the offspring are genetically identical. Some benefits of asexual reproduction is that it's easy, takes a short amount of time, you don't need a mate, and can make lots of offspring. The cost is that there is no genetic variation and is will make it more likely to go extinct if a new pathogen attacks them or their environment changes. The benefits of sexual reproduction is that it creates genetic variation, can allow the parents to raise the young to ensure survival, and create competition for mates, ensuring the best pass on their genes. The cost is that it requires lots of energy and time. It exposes you to parasites and STDs. It could create genetic combinations that are bad. We also learned that all body cells are diploid and all gametes are haploid. In meiosis, there are four stages just like mitosis, but in meiosis it divides twice. Homozygous is having two of the same allele while heterozygous is having two different alleles. The law of segregation states that the gene pairs for a trait separate when gametes are formed. The law of independent assortment states that the gene pairs separate randomly from each other during meiosis. Autosomal inheritance is when an organism inherits or gets the gene responsible for a trait from all the other 22 chromosomes which are called autosomes. X-linked inheritance is when an organism inherits, or gets, the gene responsible for a trait from the x chromosome. The most difficult thing to understand in this unit is probably crosses. A dihybrid cross is comparing two genes at the same time and the phenotypic ration is 9:3:3:1.
My preferred learning style is kinesthetic and these results were expected. I will still try to study in different ways but copying down diagrams would probably be helpful to me for studying.