Genetics? No Problem!

Kevin O'Dell

• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN: 9781118833872, 9781118833889
• eBook ISBN: 9781118833865
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Biological Sciences
• Subtopic: Genetics & Genomics
• Index: Biological Sciences

Shortlisted for the HE Bioscience Teacher of the Year Award 2019: Kevin O'Dell, Author of Genetics? No Problem!

The analysis and interpretation of data is fundamental to the subject of genetics and forms a compulsory part of the undergraduate genetics curriculum. Indeed, the key skills that a genetics student requires are an ability to design and understand experimental strategies and to use problem-solving skills to interpret experimental results and data. Genetics? No Problem! provides students with a graded set of problems that aim to enthuse, challenge and entertain the reader. 

The book is divided into three sections – introductory; intermediate and advanced – each with 10 problems. For first level students there will be short genetics problems embedded in a wide range of scenarios, such as murder mysteries. As the book progresses, the stories will get longer and the science will get progressively more complex to challenge final year students and enable the reader to identify genetic disease in obscure organisms as well as designing and testing treatments and cures.

Genetics? No Problem!:

• Takes a unique, innovative approach that provides students with a set of graded problems designed to develop both their skills, and their ability to tackle problems with confidence
• Includes problems embedded in a narrative, written in an interesting, informative and entertaining style by an Author with a proven track record in teaching, research and communication
• Is well illustrated in full colour throughout.

The book will prove invaluable to all students of genetics across a range of disciplines needing to get to grips with the analysis and interpretation of data that is fundamental to the subject.

Section 1
Introductory

Chapter 1.1
Grandma’s Secret

It’s a cold and wet summer day. So at your mother’s request you’re clearing most of your stuff out of the loft before you go to university to study genetics. It’s not a very exciting job but it is about to get a whole lot more interesting.

In the corner of the loft you find the old suitcase shown in Fig. 1.1.1 and, as the padlock is broken, you carefully open it. Folded neatly inside you find a collection of newspapers and some old family photographs dating from the 1960s. You guess they must have belonged to your grandma who would have been a teenager back then. All the great events of the 1960s are recorded, including Sidney Poitier winning an Oscar (April 1964), the death of racing driver Jim Clark (April 1968) and the first moon landing (July 1969). There are also a lot of teenage ‘popular music’ magazines with stories about the great bands of that era such as the Beatles, the Rolling Stones and The Fridge.

Figure 1.1.1 Grandma’s suitcase.

At the bottom of the suitcase you find a large old envelope. You open it and discover some newspaper cuttings about Paul Cool, lead singer and occasional drummer of The Fridge, who is shown in Fig. 1.1.2. He was the bad boy of the British 1960s popular music scene, and most of the articles are about him driving cars into swimming pools, being rude to old ladies and not wearing a tie on a Sunday. But one article catches your eye. In a cutting dated 30th July 1966, there is the headline ‘The Fridge’s Cool denies being the father of little Brenda’. What surprises you is that in the accompanying picture, the teenage girl holding baby Brenda looks remarkably like a young version of your Grandma. It also occurs to you that your mum’s older sister is called Brenda, and she was born in the spring of 1966.

Figure 1.1.2 Paul Cool. 1960s rock icon, lead singer and occasional drummer of The Fridge. This photograph was also found in Grandma’s suitcase.

You’ve always secretly admired Aunt Brenda. She is pretty cool in a bohemian kind of way. However, your parents aren’t quite so positive. ’Embarrassing for a women of her age,’ is the best your mum can say. ’Trashy,’ is your father’s favourite phrase, though you’ve always wondered whether he secretly fancies her. Could Aunt Brenda actually be the daughter of Paul Cool?

You continue searching and find some medical records inside a second envelope with what seems to be blood group data. This information is reproduced in Table 1.1.1. The blood group data is accompanied by a letter stating ‘Paternity unresolved’ and is signed by Doctor Robert.

Table 1.1.1 Blood groups of a mother (your Grandma), a child (Aunt Brenda) and an alleged father (Paul Cool). This data was found in the second envelope.

Subject	Blood group
Mother (your Grandma)	AB
Child (Aunt Brenda)	A
Alleged father (Paul Cool)	B

You look at the data, and at first something doesn’t seem quite right. However, you’ve studied the AB...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Table of Contents
• Foreword
• Preface
• Acknowledgements
• How to Use this Book
• Section 1: Introductory
• Section 2: Intermediate
• Section 3: Advanced
• Answers
• List of Figures
• End User License Agreement