Coin Sex Lab

Coin Sex Lab

In this experiment, we studied the probability of inheriting traits or disorders by autosomes or by x-linked inheritance, and the probability of producing male or female offspring.  The coins which were used in the lab were examples of recombination during meiosis, each side being a certain allele of whatever gene the coin carries. When crossing the Dihybrid Heterozygous genes, I expected to have 9 brown hair, brown eyed kids, 3 brown hair, blue eyed kids, 3 blonde hair, brown eyed kids, and 1 blonde hair, blue eyed kid.  I got 10 brown hair, brown eyed kids, 3 blonde hair, brown eyed kids, 2 brown hair, blue eyed kids, and 1 blonde hair, blue eyed kid. We also studied the probability of a certain gender. Females are all homozygous for the x chromosome, whereas males have one x and one y chromosome. The punnet square we used to determine it is relatively easy to use as the two genders are monohybrid. Though probability is useful to determine how likely it is that a disorder or certain trait is passed on, it is very general and therefore cannot predict the outcome of a specific encounter.  This means that when I have a child, I will not be able to predict it's gender, or whether a certain disorder has, indeed, been passed on to it.