Week 1: Guided Reading Reflection Questions
Read the questions below before you begin your reading for the week. The questions are meant
to help you scaffold and motivate your reading. You can type your answers in this document to
keep and use in office hours and while studying. Copy & paste your answers in the weekly
Reading Reflection assignment in Canvas to receive points towards your course engagement
points. To receive credit, answers should be written in 2-6 complete sentences, either in
paragraph or bulleted formatting. You can receive partial credit even if you do not answer all of
the prompts. Do not use AI (chatGPT)! The value of this activity is in the process of thinking and
writing while doing your reading. You are graded for this effort, not for the answer. You will see
example answers as feedback once the assignment is graded. Review these answers and
compare them to yours.
Chapter 1
1. For diploid organisms, how many copies of each chromosome exist in the average
somatic cell? What are these matching chromosomes called? What are the two types of
cell division, and what is the ploidy after each? (Section 1.2)
A diploid organism has two copies of each chromosome. The matching pairs are called
homologous chromosomes. The two types of cell divisions are mitosis and meiosis. Mitosis
results in diploid cells, which means that they have the same number of chromosomes as their
parent cell. Meiosis creates haploid cells, which has only one set of chromosomes.
2. Which protein is involved in sickle-cell anemia? How is this protein altered through
changes to DNA? CRISPR-Cas genome editing has been a recent hot topic in scientific
media. How might genome editing be used to treat a disease like sickle-cell anemia?
What ethical challenges does this pose? (1.3-1.5)
The protein used in sickle-cell anemia is beta-globin. This protein is altered by a mutation that
creates a misfolding in the globin protein. The mutation causes the shape to be altered and
become sickle. The CRISPR genome editing is used to correct the mutation in the beta-globin.
Genetic alterations pose ethical challenges of designing children and the long-term effects.
3. Were you familiar with the most common model organisms? Why do we use model
organisms to study genes? (1.7)
I have heard of fruit flies being used as model organisms because of their short life spans and
ability to easily produce offspring. As well as their quick reproduction time. Model organisms are
used because their genomes are fully sequenced and can be used to study gene functions.
Chapter 10
4. Chapter 10 outlines foundational experiments that helped us understand how nucleic
acids function as genetic material. Choose your favorite of these experiments, describe
what the researchers did, and place their findings into the context of what the field
learned about DNA. (10.3-10.7)
