Zoo Matchmaker:Selective Breeding Online Lab

Name ______Date ______Class _____

Read the information on Selective Breeding, Genes Make Some Animals Disease Resistant!, Distemper Resistance is Recessive, Breed to Increase the Frequency of (d), and Avoid Inbreeding If You Can.

Purpose: What is selective breeding? ______

Research:

If tigers are selectively bred for resistance to a disease, it could ______

Tigers that are disease resistant have the genotype ______.

When selectively breeding, we have to be careful of ______

Hypothesis: (circle your choice)

If tigers are selectively bred, then the entire population can / can not become resistant to a certain disease.

Procedure: Go to Newman’s Neurons and log into the “Zoo Matchmaker” link on the left side under the “Genetics” heading. Click on Start and listen to the narrator. (To maximize the screen you may need to increase the magnification at the bottom of the screen to 400%.) Now you are ready to conduct the selective breeding on-line lab.

  1. Press: Begin
  2. Select and press: Maximize Disease Resistance
  3. Read the Info Page
  4. Select: Start Breeding
  5. Select a female and a male by clicking and dragging their head to the tiger outlines. Look at the Punnett square to see the possible outcome of the offspring. Remember your goal is to selectively breed for the genotype (dd). Be careful of inbreeding (try not to breed siblings). Once you have decided on your male and female, click Breed. The computer will prompt you to breed tigers through 4 generations and then will show you a graph of the final outcome of your tiger population over a period of 4 years.

Experimental Data:

Complete the Zoo Matchmaker Data Tables – Disease Resistance as you work through the generations.

Look at the graph at the end of 4 generations. Explain what happened in regards to changes in disease resistance and inbreeding. Be specific. What is the pattern between your breeding selections and your results? Compare your breeding selections and the degree of inbreeding at the end of four generations. Compare your breeding selections and the level of disease resistance at the end of four generations. ______

Conclusion:

  1. Was your hypothesis supported by the experiment? ______
  2. How did the experiment support or disprove your hypothesis? ______
  3. What crosses between tigers would need to be performed and what results would be needed to be sure that the gene was recessive? ______
  4. What is another example of how selective breeding is used today? (Be specific – describe why these organisms are selectively bred and what the desired outcome would be.) ______
  5. How does this experiment relate to our Georgia Performance Standard: S7L3c: Students will recognize that selective breeding will produce plants and animals with desired traits? ______
  6. What animals in the U.S. have been near the brink of extinction? Name some species that have been saved from extinction. Which have not? Can you think of reasons why some animals receive more conservation support than others? ______