Toothpick Fish Lab

__Since starting the genetics unit in science class, I have learned a lot about genes and alleles. Genes are the set of information that control a trait, where as an allele is the different form of a gene. Every organism has genes. The genes of people show what color eyes, what texture hair, etc. Animals are similar by showing the type of fur and length of claws. Plants will expose pedal color, thorn probability and such. By completing the Toothpick Fish Lab, I realized how certain alleles benefit in specific environments. __Before beginning the lab, the "lake" was placed with eight green fish, eight yellow fish, and eight red fish. The twenty four fish were [randomly] paired up producing a total of twelve baby fish. Because green alleles were dominant to both red and yellow, 67% of the newborns were green. The other 33% was orange due to the fact that red and orange alleles had incomplete dominance. Incomplete dominance is a cross between organisms with two different physical features, which essentially create a blend of the two features. In the second generation of offspring, two yellow fish were produced by the joining of two yellow alleles from the parents. Unfortunately, the habitat in which the school is located, is made up of a variety of green plants. The greens' sorroundings made it difficult for the yellow fish to camouflage themselves, therefore being located and eaten by prey. The population then decreased down to ten. The third generation's population stayed at ten but then shrank to nine in the fourth and final generation when another yellow baby was born. The current population included two red fish, one orange and six green fish. Erratically, an oil spill struck the lake causing all the plants to dye. This event induced the green fish to be the "fish out of water" by destroying all of their hiding spots. Since all the yellow and green fish were now extinct, the population was alarming down to the three red and orange fish. __With multiple options of different standards, the lab would have gone in a completely different direction. For example, if yellow was dominant to either (or both) of the other colors, the population would have diminished a lot faster. Or, maybe if yellow and green were codominant, part of that group would be captured, but not every single yellow/green. There are so many factors in this assignment that if changed, would make a dramatic difference. Specifications of this are; the natural disaster, dominance's and the habitat. If these changes were present during the lab, the population may have even increased. This lab really helped me to understand how important it is for organisms to cross breed and form new genotypes.