PV92: A Hoax Or Genetic Drift?
Materials and Methods Section
What came first was a bitter experience. We were given strips of PTC paper, so we could see if we tasted them. After spitting mine out, I knew right away I was a taster. Luckily for others, they weren’t tasters, and they didn’t get the thrill of having a bitter flavor enhance their mouths. What came next was swabbing our mouths. In order for us to get the DNA that we wanted to break down, we used the easiest supply of free DNA- our saliva. It was this saliva that was going to be placed in gel trays that we needed to make.
However, we didn’t just dump our spit into the gel trays right then and there; we still needed to break them down first, in order for the pieces to be down to the bare necessities. After we …show more content…
The statistics that we predicted were really close to what numbers we actually got. However, the PV92 did not fit the hypothesis. The reason that the PV92 traits differed drastically than what was expected was due to genetic drift. As genes were passed down from parent to child, the genes were in a battle as to who was going to be the champ. With generations passing, the heterozygotes were going downhill, while the homozygotes were taking the upper hand. While we might know more if we examined multiple generations, all we can tell is from a snapshot in time from one generation. According to a test that was studied by Wooding, the taster gene is an interesting one to follow. After studying how it changes throughout generations of orangutans, they discovered that that out of eight, six of them showed the taster gene. This means that 6/8, or 75% of them shoe this trait, while the remaining 25% don’t have it. (Wooding, 2006) So, what does this show? It shows that genetic drift isn’t a part of this gene. According to a table, between 0 and 50% was where a good chunk of non-tasters fit in. This proves that genetic drift isn’t creating an increase in one, or a decrease in the other. This proves that the chance of either happening will eventually be as close as the chances of a coin flip. (Wooding,
What came first was a bitter experience. We were given strips of PTC paper, so we could see if we tasted them. After spitting mine out, I knew right away I was a taster. Luckily for others, they weren’t tasters, and they didn’t get the thrill of having a bitter flavor enhance their mouths. What came next was swabbing our mouths. In order for us to get the DNA that we wanted to break down, we used the easiest supply of free DNA- our saliva. It was this saliva that was going to be placed in gel trays that we needed to make.
However, we didn’t just dump our spit into the gel trays right then and there; we still needed to break them down first, in order for the pieces to be down to the bare necessities. After we …show more content…
The statistics that we predicted were really close to what numbers we actually got. However, the PV92 did not fit the hypothesis. The reason that the PV92 traits differed drastically than what was expected was due to genetic drift. As genes were passed down from parent to child, the genes were in a battle as to who was going to be the champ. With generations passing, the heterozygotes were going downhill, while the homozygotes were taking the upper hand. While we might know more if we examined multiple generations, all we can tell is from a snapshot in time from one generation. According to a test that was studied by Wooding, the taster gene is an interesting one to follow. After studying how it changes throughout generations of orangutans, they discovered that that out of eight, six of them showed the taster gene. This means that 6/8, or 75% of them shoe this trait, while the remaining 25% don’t have it. (Wooding, 2006) So, what does this show? It shows that genetic drift isn’t a part of this gene. According to a table, between 0 and 50% was where a good chunk of non-tasters fit in. This proves that genetic drift isn’t creating an increase in one, or a decrease in the other. This proves that the chance of either happening will eventually be as close as the chances of a coin flip. (Wooding,