Study guide for a unit on human heredity for the advanced high school biology student

Abstract

Scope of Study: Today, more and more people are becoming interested in genetics. Most of the work done in this field does not cover human heredity for several reasons. The most important reason is that men has such a long life cycle. Geneticists get their knowledge about human inheritance by studying family pedigrees. From this information they can predict how a certain trait or characteristic is inherited. This study is an accumulation of material that will help to introduce to capable high school students some or the work in human heredity that has been done. The history of genetics really begins with Gregor Mendel who gave us the basic information for the laws or segregation and independent assortment. Most human traits are inherited by simple dominance, recessiveness, and sex linkage. There are examples of pedigree studies for most all traits or characteristics of the parts and systems of the body such as eye color and hemophilia. These studies lead to practical applications such as the prognosis of whether two people should marry and to the diagnosis of certain diseases.