BIOL 200 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Twin Study, Chromosome, Roman Numerals
Document Summary
Outline: the trouble with studying humans, pedigrees, twin and adoption rules, genetic testing (good or bad?, genetic counseling. With a few exceptions, most scientific research done in the life sciences is done for the betterment of man. We all want to live forever, and so we continue to do research. Model organisms (yeast, flies, pea plants, mice) are great for some studies, but we need to understand humans, too. Pedigrees, twin studies and adoption studies allow us to study people without facing impossible ethical hurdles. We cant do controlled crosses with people . People have a long generation time (it would take a lifetime to study a persons lifetime) about 40 years for an f2 generation. Offspring in people have a very low n; poor statistics. Environment plays a huge role in human development. Luckily we have twins, adoptions and detailed family records. A pedigree is nothing more than a family tree that considers only a single inherited trait.
