Bio Help needed, exam next week

Biology Level 2 2.5 Genetic variation and change
1

Hey guys, this is a little urgent as my exam is next week

I was wonder what a pattern of inheritance is and how I can determine which one it is?
And I was also wondering what the difference between ‘discuss’ and ‘explain’ is in an exam?

Thanks guys!!

2

Hi Sarah

For AS 2.5 there are patterns of inheritance refers to either Monohybrid or Dihybrid inheritance.

In Monohybrid Inheritance (one gene interaction - meaning two alleles), there are 5 possible examples.

  1. Complete dominance - This is the one you would have studied last year where the “dominant” allele is completely expressed over the other .
    The 4 new ones you need to know are
  2. Co- dominance
  3. Incomplete dominance
  4. Lethal alleles
  5. Multiple alleles

In Dihybrid inheritance (2 genes - interaction between 4 alleles), you only explore complete dominance for this example.
You do also need to know the effect of linked genes and unlinked genes for dihybrid inheritance.

Bear in mind that these two topics are often tied in with the other topics - such as genetic drift, founder’s effect, bottle neck effect etc.

For the second part of the question:
You can refer to this post I made earlier regarding the difference between “explain” and “discuss”.

Hope that helps!
At this stage, it would be best to watch some of the vid’s in the links given above and practice some past year papers!
Kia Kaha!

3

thank you so much for your prompt and extremely helpful response!