Psychology Biological Foundations: Heredity, Prenatal Development, and Birth

What is the basic building block of the nature perspective

Gene

Genes

• are specific sequence of nucleotides and are recipes for making protein

• Proteins make up the structure of the cell and let it function.

• They’re the building blocks and machines of cells.

• Genes are the blueprints that let our bodies build those blocks and machine

DNA sequences

• Genes are DNA sequences

• There are about 20,500 genes for humans, made out of about 3 billion base pairs.

• If you unwound all of your DNA from a single cell and had it in a single double helix it would be about six feet long

• DNA is looped up into clumps called chromosomes

Chromosomes

• threadlike structures in the nuclei of cells that contain genetic material

• We have 23 pairs of chromosomes

Autosomes

• first 22 pairs of chromosomes

• These are matching pairs( should have 2 copies

Sex chromosomes

• 23rd pair of chromosomes; these determine the genetic sex of the child

Mitosis

• is defined as the cell’s nucleus making an exact copy of all the

chromosomes and splitting into two new cells

meiosis

• Gametes (sperm or ova), are formed

• . The gamete’s chromosomes duplicate, and then divide twice resulting in four cells containing only half the genetic material of a normal cell (23 unpaired chromosomes).

Gene

• group of nucleotide bases that provide a specific set of biochemical instructions

Genotype

person’s hereditary makeup