Lecture 5 - Phenotypes

Describe the different levels of phenotype and provide examples for each level: molecular, biochemical, cellular, and organismal.

Definition: Observable physical properties of an organism (appearance, development, and behavior). Determined by genotype and environmental influences upon those genes.

Examples: height, wing length, hair color, hormone levels, number of blood cells, IQ, etc. Fuck it, an accent even if it’s not determined by genotype.

Propose specific examples of different environments (cellular, physiological, ecological etc.) and how these different environments can affect an organism’s phenotype.

Question: What makes Kenyan runners so fast? Propose your hypothesis and potential ways to test your hypothesis?

Ideas: Muscle composition, leg length, lung capacity, running culture, training in high altitude. We can test whether it’s through genetic factor or environmental through both ethical and non-ethical methods.

Given a population where individuals differ in a phenotype, propose an experiment to determine the respective contribution of environmental factors and genotype to the phenotypic differences. Explain how this experiment can be used to determine if the phenotypic differences are due to a genetic change rather than the environment.

Explain how mutations in genes can result in novel phenotypes at different levels (molecular, biochemical, cellular, physiological, developmental)