# *Genome 2 Phenome 4 Non-Biologists Workshop*: Alleles, March 25 2021

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## Alleles, Inheritance, Linkage

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### Learning Objectives:

* Define an allele

* Understand diploid inheritence and what chromosomal ploidy is

* Define linked/unlinked alleles in terms of inheritence

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### Question 1:
**Do all alleles impact phenotype? Why or why not?**

* Breakout Room 1:
* No, because some mutations are silent. They do not affect the functionality of the protein.

* Breakout Room 2:
* No, alleles impact on phenotype is completely dependent on how it is paired and the nature of the traits inheretance (recessive/dominant/other).

* Breakout Room 3:
* No, not all genes impact phenotype;

* Breakout Room 4:
* No, because when recessive alleles are masked, they don't impact the phenotype. Additionally, there's certain genes that get turned off and on.

* Breakout Room 5:
* No. Because dominance and recessive genes. Also variability of the population.

* Breakout Room 6:
No. Because some small changes in the gene will not result in a change of protein expression that affect phenotype.
* Breakout Room 7:
* No, for example may have two different alleles with same phenotype so cannot distinguish.

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### Question 2:
**If they lack the enzyme made by the the samoa-less gene, humans cannot taste Girl Scout cookies. Would you predict such a mutation would be dominant or recessive? Why? How might you test your idea?**

* Breakout Room 1:
* It is expected to be recessive because if an allele to make the enzyme is present, they will be able to taste the cookies. We could test this if we have a pedigree.

* Breakout Room 2:
* Looking at the expression ratios within the population will be the primary indicator of if the trait is dominant or recessive. This could be done by a large scale population study.

* Breakout Room 3:
Since it is caused by lacking the enzyme, we need two copies of the alleles to be able to see the lack of tasting samoas (although I like thin mints better)
* Breakout Room 4:
* It is expected to be recessive because as long as there is the allele to make the enzyme, the ability to taste the cookies should still be there. This can be tested by finding a pair of parents with one who can taste the cookies and one who can't and seeing if their children are able to taste the cookies.

* Breakout Room 5:
* Predict with groups of tasters and non-tasters to determine dominant and recessive traits, through statistics, assuming that the enzyme was functional at one time assumes it was dominant.

* Breakout Room 6:
Recessive. Population studies on a family, look at the genotype for the incidence of the allele and the pehenotype for the incidence of the lack of taste
* Breakout Room 7:
* Recessive because it means both alleles are defective/lacking
*

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### Question 3:
**Why do you think peaks in Association Studies are usually stacks of points rather than just single points?**

* Breakout Room 1:
* Multiple SNPs usually surround a single causal gene, so many SNPs will be grouped with the gene that causes the trait of interest.
*
* Breakout Room 2:
* Within a chromosome, their can be multiple SNPs present, and thus these SNPs could be linked.

* Breakout Room 3:
beacuse the genes are close/linked
* Breakout Room 4:
* Multiple SNPs are associated with a single gene or located by the causative gene.
* Breakout Room 5:
* Maybe the SNPs occur is where the DNA was broken at one time, and frequency of breaks are more likely to occur.
* Breakout Room 6:
SNPs are linked and there is complex inheritance
* Breakout Room 7:
*

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### Comments:

* Breakout Room 1:

* Breakout Room 2:

* Breakout Room 3:

* Breakout Room 4:

* Breakout Room 5:

* Breakout Room 6:

* Breakout Room 7:

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**Resources for Further Learning:**

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