What is known about the genetics of

Tenebrio molitor?

What is known about the genetics of

Tenebrio molitor?question answered by jordan yaronquestion answered by jordan yaron

What is Genetics?What is Genetics?Genetics is the basis for what makes everybody and everything individual and unique.

The DNA (information held within chromosomes) from two different organisms are combined to create one unique organism.

Popularized by Gregor Mendel in 1865

DNA? Chromosomes?DNA is deoxyribonucleic acid.

The double helix - The basis for life

Read by the body like a line of “code.”

adenineguaninecytosinethymine

11001101001011010011011001101001

Chromosomes are genetic carriers

Tightly wound structures of DNA

This is how DNA is contained within cells (10,000 to 1,000,000,000 nucleotides - letters of code)

Our friend, the MealwormIn 1905, Nettie M. Stevens reinforced, via experiments on T. molitor, the concept of sex/gender determination based on dominant and recessive chromosomes

T. molitor contains 10 pairs of chromosomes (20 total, versus the 23 pairs/46 total in humans)

Males have a smaller, recessive chromosome in one pair (the “Y” chromosome)

Thus, males are “XY” and females are “XX”Source: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/389882

What else?Other studies have shown that T. molitor’s genetics follow the general dominant-recessive principle:

The color of the hard outer layer (cuticle) has been linked to genetic inheritenceSource: (Armitage, et al: http://www.nature.com/hdy/journal/v94/n6/full/6800675a.html)

Interestingly, there are links between the color of the cuticle, and naturally inherited pathogen (germ) resistance in T. molitorSource: (Armitage, et al: http://www.nature.com/hdy/journal/v94/n6/full/6800675a.html)

Occasionally, there exist “XYY” T. molitor, with two male-sex chromosomes; while this is considered a complicated system, it has not been shown to differentiate the selection of males and femalesSource: (Kido, et al: http://www.journalarchive.jst.go.jp/english/jnlabstract_en.php?cdjournal=pjab1977&cdvol=61&noissue=8&startpage=368)

?My Question for You...

We now know that examples of genetic inheritance in T. molitor are sex and

color.

Based on the genetics of Tenebrio molitor, what are some possible

characteristics in humans that could be related to genetic inheritance?