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- Published on Friday, 07 August 2020 18:48
Genetics
The study of heredity and the variation of inherited characteristics
Members of the Genetics Society of America have worked with CourseSource to create a Learning Framework for the Genetics Course. The table below lists the learning goals and objectives that the Society agrees any undergraduate biological sciences major should know about Genetics by the time they graduate.
Download the Learning FrameworkThe following people worked to develop this society-approved Genetics Learning Framework:
Ken Burtis (University of California, Davis), Scott Hawley (Stowers Institute), and Michelle Smith (Cornell University)
Genetics Society of America
The Genetics Society of America (GSA), founded in 1931, is the professional membership organization for scientific researchers and educators in the field of genetics. Our members work to advance knowledge in the basic mechanisms of inheritance, from the molecular to the population level.
Genetics Learning Framework
Society Learning Goals
Articles
Sample Learning Objectives
Nature of Genetic Material
- An undergraduate bioinformatics curriculum that teaches eukaryotic gene structure
- CRISPR/Cas9 in yeast: a multi-week laboratory exercise for undergraduate students
- Homologous chromosomes? Exploring human sex chromosomes, sex determination and sex reversal using bioinformatics approaches
- The Case of the Missing Strawberries: RFLP analysis
- Using computational molecular modeling software to demonstrate how DNA mutations cause phenotypes
- Using CRISPR-Cas9 to teach the fundamentals of molecular biology and experimental design
- Explain the meaning of ploidy (haploid, diploid, aneuploid etc.) and how it relates to the number of homologues of each chromosome.
- Describe how the positions of individual genes on a given chromosome are related to their positions on the homolog of that chromosome.
- Differentiate between a gene and an allele, including the recognition that genes may have many alleles.
- Explain the functional significance of packaging DNA into chromosomes and the lack of correlation between chromosome size and genetic information content.
- Describe the types of DNA regions that do not encode proteins: the general organization, possible function, and frequency of genes and non-gene DNA sequences in a typical eukaryotic genome.
- Explain what is meant by single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) and short tandem repeat (STR), and explain how SNPs and STRs can be used as genetic markers even if they do not cause phenotypic changes.
- Discuss how DNA is packaged in the chromosomes in terms of histones, nucleosomes, and chromatin.
- A virtual laboratory on cell division using a publicly-available image database
- An undergraduate bioinformatics curriculum that teaches eukaryotic gene structure
- Sex-specific differences in Meiosis: Real-world applications
- Why Meiosis Matters: The case of the fatherless snake
- You and Your Oral Microflora: Introducing non-biology majors to their “forgotten organ”
- Draw a simple line diagram showing a segment of DNA from a gene and its RNA transcript, indicating which DNA strand is the template, the direction of transcription and the polarities of all DNA and RNA strands.
- Describe the process of mitosis, transcription, and translation. How are mistakes in these processes identified and corrected?
Transmission - Patterns of Inheritance
- Fruit Fly Genetics in a Day: A Guided Exploration to Help Many Large Sections of Beginning Students Uncover the Secrets of Sex-linked Inheritance
- Homologous chromosomes? Exploring human sex chromosomes, sex determination and sex reversal using bioinformatics approaches
- Predicting and classifying effects of insertion and deletion mutations on protein coding regions
- Teaching Genetic Linkage and Recombination through Mapping with Molecular Markers
- Why do Some People Inherit a Predisposition to Cancer? A small group activity on cancer genetics
- Why Meiosis Matters: The case of the fatherless snake
- Draw a pedigree based on information in a story problem.
- Using pedigrees, distinguish between dominant, recessive, autosomal, X-linked, and cytoplasmic modes of inheritance.
- Predict the transmission of phenotypes associated with maternal effect genes.
- Explain why the terms “dominant” and “recessive” are context dependent and may differ at the cellular level or at the level of a pedigree.
- Calculate the probability that an individual in a pedigree has a particular genotype (using Bayesian inference if appropriate for course).
- Design genetic crosses to provide information about genes, alleles, and gene functions.
- Interpret the results of experiments comparing the phenotypes that result from single mutations in two different genes with the phenotype of the double mutant, contrasting epistatic and additive interactions.
- Explain how continuous traits are the result of many different gene combinations that can each contribute a varying amount to a phenotype.
- Evaluate how genes and the environment can interact to produce a phenotype.
- Diagram the process of homologous recombination during meiosis and explain how it can lead to new combinations of linked alleles.
- Explain the role of homologous recombination in ensuring proper segregation of homologs in meiosis I
- Explain how a specific combination of linked alleles (haplotype) can persist through many generations (linkage disequilibrium).
- Calculate gene linkage and genetic map distances and interference from the frequencies of progeny with recombinant phenotypes from genetic crosses.
- Explain how genetic distance is different from physical distance.
- Calculate the probability of a particular gamete being produced from an individual, provided map distance.
- Use statistical analysis to determine how well data from a genetic cross or human pedigree analysis fits theoretical predictions including an explanation of the appropriate statistical test.
- Explain the meaning of a LOD score.
- Fruit Fly Genetics in a Day: A Guided Exploration to Help Many Large Sections of Beginning Students Uncover the Secrets of Sex-linked Inheritance
- Homologous chromosomes? Exploring human sex chromosomes, sex determination and sex reversal using bioinformatics approaches
- Meiosis: A Play in Three Acts, Starring DNA Sequence
- Sex-specific differences in Meiosis: Real-world applications
- Why do Some People Inherit a Predisposition to Cancer? A small group activity on cancer genetics
- Why Meiosis Matters: The case of the fatherless snake
- Distinguish between somatic and germline cells; listing similarities and differences.
- Compare and explain the inheritance of germline and somatic mutations.
- Describe, using diagrams, the sequence of events involving DNA in meiosis from chromosome duplication through chromosome segregation. Explain how meiosis is different from mitosis.
- Describe the difference between meiosis in mammalian males and females.
- Distinguish between sister chromatids and homologous chromosomes.
- Explain how independent assortment of alleles during meiosis can lead to new combinations of alleles of unlinked genes.
- Discuss how errors in chromosome number can arise during meiosis, and why such alterations can be detrimental
- Explain how abnormalities in gene dosage can affect phenotype.
- Calculate the probability of a particular gamete being produced from an individual, assuming independent segregation.
- Calculate the probability of a particular genotype, given independent segregation and random union of gametes between two individuals.
- Contrast the mechanisms of inheritance of nuclear and organellar genetic information
Molecular biology of gene function
- A clicker-based case study that untangles student thinking about the processes in the central dogma
- Linking Genotype to Phenotype: The Effect of a Mutation in Gibberellic Acid Production on Plant Germination
- Using CRISPR-Cas9 to teach the fundamentals of molecular biology and experimental design
- Using Synthetic Biology and pClone Red for Authentic Research on Promoter Function: Genetics (analyzing mutant promoters)
- Using Synthetic Biology and pClone Red for Authentic Research on Promoter Function: Introductory Biology (identifying new promoters)
- You and Your Oral Microflora: Introducing non-biology majors to their “forgotten organ”
- Describe how expansion or retraction of triplet repeats can alter gene function and create a phenotype.
- Explain how the genetic code relates transcription to translation
- Discuss how various factors might influence the relationship between genotype and phenotype (e.g. incomplete penetrance, variable expressivity, and sex-limited phenotype).
- Explain how abnormalities in gene dosage can affect phenotype.
Gene Expression and Regulation
- Discuss the roles of types of RNA other than mRNA in expressing genetic information.
- Contrast the packaging of DNA into euchromatin versus heterochromatin in the context of histone modification, and DNA modification (where applicable)
- Defend how most cells can have the same genetic content and yet have different functions in the body.
- Discuss the potential roles of DNA modification, histone modification, and non-coding RNA in epigenetic inheritance, both somatic and germline
- Discuss environmental impacts on epigenetic systems
- Describe how differential histone modification modulates gene activity and is utilized in developmental progression.
- Use a model systems to describe investigations of evo-devo.
- Describe genetic cascades; use the sex-determination cascade to explain how differential gene expression can result in the development of different sexes.
- Explain how polarity is established in a developing embryo using gene expression gradients.
Genetic variation
- A clicker-based case study that untangles student thinking about the processes in the central dogma
- Building a Model of Tumorigenesis: A small group activity for a cancer biology/cell biology course
- Discovering Prokaryotic Gene Regulation by Building and Investigating a Computational Model of the lac Operon
- Discovering Prokaryotic Gene Regulation with Simulations of the trp Operon
- Exploration of the Human Genome by Investigation of Personalized SNPs
- Follow the Sulfur: Using Yeast Mutants to Study a Metabolic Pathway
- GMC: Genes, Mutations and Cancer - Group Concept Map Development
- Homologous chromosomes? Exploring human sex chromosomes, sex determination and sex reversal using bioinformatics approaches
- Linking Genotype to Phenotype: The Effect of a Mutation in Gibberellic Acid Production on Plant Germination
- Predicting and classifying effects of insertion and deletion mutations on protein coding regions
- Using computational molecular modeling software to demonstrate how DNA mutations cause phenotypes
- Using CRISPR-Cas9 to teach the fundamentals of molecular biology and experimental design
- Using Synthetic Biology and pClone Red for Authentic Research on Promoter Function: Genetics (analyzing mutant promoters)
- Using Synthetic Biology and pClone Red for Authentic Research on Promoter Function: Introductory Biology (identifying new promoters)
- Describe how duplications, deletions, inversions, and translocations can affect gene function, gene expression, and genetic recombination. Describe the same for transposable elements.
- Describe how mutations arise and how environmental factors can increase mutation rate.
- Cite examples of mutations that can be beneficial to organisms.
- Interpret results from experiments to distinguish between different types of DNA rearrangements.
- Distinguish between loss of function and gain of function mutations and their potential phenotypic consequences.
- Predict the most likely effects on protein structure and function of null, reduction-of-function, overexpression, dominant-negative and gain-of-function mutations.
- Compare the role of both loss and gain of function mutations in the origin of tumors
Evolution and Population genetics
- Describe the mechanisms by which variation arises and is fixed (or lost) in a population over time.
- Calculate allele frequencies based on phenotypic or genotypic data for a population, and be able to explain the assumptions that make such a calculation possible.
- Model how random mating yields predicted genotype frequencies in Hardy-Weinberg Equilibrium (HWE), and how non-random mating affects allele and genotype frequencies.
- Test whether HWE has been reached in a population.
- Explain how inbreeding increases the number of homozygotes (and possibly disease) in comparison to HWE.
- Explain how natural selection and genetic drift can affect the elimination, maintenance or increase in frequency of various types of alleles (e.g. dominant, recessive, deleterious, beneficial) in a population.
- Interpret experiments to determine the relative influences of genes and the environment on a given phenotype.
- Describe how variation can be measured, and what can be done to distinguish genetic and environmental sources of variation.
- Interpret bioinformatics data to compare homologous genes in different species and infer relative degrees of evolutionary relatedness.
- Use comparative data from multiple species to identify which regions of a protein, pathway, regulatory system etc. are critical for function.
Genetics of model organisms
- Exploration of the Human Genome by Investigation of Personalized SNPs
- Using Synthetic Biology and pClone Red for Authentic Research on Promoter Function: Genetics (analyzing mutant promoters)
- Using Synthetic Biology and pClone Red for Authentic Research on Promoter Function: Introductory Biology (identifying new promoters)
- Justify why information on functions of human genes can often be acquired through studies of simple model organisms such as yeast, nematode worms, and fruit flies.
- Compare the benefits and limitations of using model organisms to study human genes and human genetic diseases. Identify specific cases where insights from model organisms have provided crucial insights into human disease.
- Defend the assertion that genetic testing will play a central role in the diagnosis and treatment of cancer in the future.
Methods & Tools in Genetics
- A Close-Up Look at PCR
- A Hands-on Introduction to Hidden Markov Models
- A Kinesthetic Modeling Activity to Teach PCR Fundamentals
- An Introduction to Eukaryotic Genome Analysis in Non-model Species for Undergraduates: A tutorial from the Genome Consortium for Active Teaching
- An undergraduate bioinformatics curriculum that teaches eukaryotic gene structure
- Make It Stick: Teaching Gene Targeting with Ribbons and Fasteners
- Predicting and classifying effects of insertion and deletion mutations on protein coding regions
- Teaching Genetic Linkage and Recombination through Mapping with Molecular Markers
- The Case of the Missing Strawberries: RFLP analysis
- Using computational molecular modeling software to demonstrate how DNA mutations cause phenotypes
- Using CRISPR-Cas9 to teach the fundamentals of molecular biology and experimental design
- Using Synthetic Biology and pClone Red for Authentic Research on Promoter Function: Genetics (analyzing mutant promoters)
- Using Synthetic Biology and pClone Red for Authentic Research on Promoter Function: Introductory Biology (identifying new promoters)
- Using Undergraduate Molecular Biology Labs to Discover Targets of miRNAs in Humans
- You and Your Oral Microflora: Introducing non-biology majors to their “forgotten organ”
- Explain reverse genetics and compare methods for generating specific mutations in the genome vs. generating phenocopies using techniques such as RNAi or morpholinos.
- Explain the method of SNP/STR mapping and interpret SNP/STR mapping data to pinpoint the chromosomal location of a human disease gene.
- Interpret complementation tests, including an assessment of the molecular interactions that might yield the results observed.
Genetics & Ethics
- Casting a Wide Net via Case Studies: Educating across the undergraduate to medical school continuum in the biological sciences
- Exploration of the Human Genome by Investigation of Personalized SNPs
- Homologous chromosomes? Exploring human sex chromosomes, sex determination and sex reversal using bioinformatics approaches
- Compare the benefits and risks associated with the acquisition, ownership and storage of personal genetic and genomic information.
- Defend the assertion that genetic testing will play a central role in the diagnosis and treatment of cancer in the future.
- Contrast past and present views about how genetic information should be used by society, employers, and the government in support of public policies.
- Write about how obtaining personal genetic information could lead to negative consequences affecting others.