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Pedigree Analysis: A Family Tree of Traits

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Abstract

Some characteristics, like the shape of your hairline or whether your earlobes are attached or detached, are inherited from your parents. In this science project you will see how writing these characteristics onto a family tree can help you determine how they are inherited

Summary

Areas of Science
Difficulty
 
Time Required
Short (2-5 days)
Prerequisites
Basic understanding of genetic principles
Material Availability
Readily available
Cost
Very Low (under $20)
Safety
No issues
Credits

Sandra Slutz, PhD, Science Buddies
Teisha Rowland, PhD, Science Buddies

Objective

Use pedigree analysis to determine how several human physical traits are inherited.

Introduction

Do you have the same hair color or eye color as your mother? Do people say you look just like your grandfather when he was your age? When we look at members of a family it is easy to see that some physical characteristics or traits are shared, but what are the rules that govern the inheritance of these traits?

It was Gregor Mendel, an Augustinian friar and scientist, who first discovered in the 1860's that some traits are passed down from generation to generation, in very clear and predictable patterns. Today we know that offspring inherit half of their DNA from each parent. This results in two copies of every gene. Many genes come in several different versions, called alleles. Alleles are changes in the actual DNA sequence of the gene. When you have two identical alleles you are said to be homozygous for that gene. People with two different alleles are heterozygous for that gene. Whatever set of alleles a person has is called their genotype. The actual trait, such as red, black, or blond hair, which results from a combination of alleles, is referred to as the phenotype.

Mendelian traits— the kind of characteristics Mendel first studied— are due to a single gene. Some of such a gene's alleles are dominant, meaning that if you have even one copy of that allele, you will display that trait. Mendel took pea plants, which bred true, meaning for generation after generation they had the same phenotypes. (Today we know that they bred true because they were homozygous for the traits Mendel was looking at). He took a true-breeding purple flowered plant and crossed it to a true-breeding white flowered plant and saw that the offspring all had purple flowers. The purple allele was dominant— a single copy of that allele was sufficient. He then took these offspring and crossed them to one another. This crossing is shown in Figure 1 below, where the top flowers ("Aa") are these heterozygous parents. He found that their offspring occasionally had white flowers. That is because the white allele was recessive, which means you need two copies of that allele to display a certain trait. The offspring that inherited the white allele from both parents displayed the white phenotype.

Drawing of two flowers each with two phenotypes producing four flowers with different combinations of phenotypes
Figure 1. Two heterozygous parents displaying the dominant phenotype can give rise to offspring with either the dominant or the recessive phenotype depending on which alleles the offspring inherit.

Just like Mendel observed generations of related pea plants to determine the mode of inheritance for flower color and other physical traits, scientists can examine generations within a family and discover the mode of inheritance for human traits. To do this, scientists create family trees, called pedigrees, showing as many generations of a family as they can and marking who had which phenotype. Two pedigree examples are shown in Figure 2 below. In order for scientists to understand each other's pedigrees, they use a standard set of symbols and notations. For example, males are always designated by a square and females are always designated by a circle.

Drawing of a family tree with four black shapes and four white shapes A pedigree tree shows a recessive trait only appearing in a grandfather and granddaughter
Figure 2. Here are two pedigrees showing the same three generations of a family. A specific trait is shown as a solid black circle or square. The pedigree on the left is an example of a dominant trait in this family. The pedigree on the right depicts a recessive trait.

In this genetics and genomics science project, you will create pedigrees for four human physical traits to determine which phenotypes are dominant and which are recessive. While it has been recently found that these four traits may not be Mendelian traits (meaning they may be caused by more than one gene, based on more than two alleles, or affected by factors other than genetics), they are still considered to be primarily based on genetics and you can investigate them to try and determine which are dominant and which are recessive. Here are the four traits you will investigate:



Drawing of an ear with a detached earlobe to the left of a drawing of an ear with an attached earlobe
Figure 3. This diagram shows the difference between detached earlobes and attached earlobes.




Drawing of a girl with a straight hairline to the left of a drawing of a girl with a widow's peak
Figure 4. Here is an example of a straight hairline versus one with a widow's peak.




A hand with the mid-digit labeled as the area between the second and third joint of a finger
Figure 5. This photograph shows where mid-digits on a hand are. Some people have tiny mid-digit hairs while other people have no hairs on their mid-digits. This person has no mid-digit hair.




A hand making a thumbs up signal
Figure 6. This photograph shows a slightly curved thumb. Some people have thumbs that are much more curved, while other people have straight thumbs.


Terms and Concepts

Questions

Bibliography

For a fun and interactive way to learn about dominant and recessive traits try:

Here you can read different discussions on dominant and recessive alleles in humans:

  • The Tech Museum of Innovation. (n.d.). Dominant vs. Recessive. Stanford at The Tech: Understanding Genetics. Retrieved May 15, 2013.

Here is a resource for learning how to create pedigrees:

Materials and Equipment

Experimental Procedure

Before starting this science project, you should go through your reference material and familiarize yourself with the proper way to draw a human pedigree.

  1. To start this science project, you should draw a pedigree showing the different members of your family.
    1. Include as many family members as you can get data from. The more people and generations you include, the more likely it is that you will have enough information to determine the mode of inheritance. Ideally you should include multiple people from at least three generations (such as you and your siblings, your parents and possibly their siblings, and your grandparents).
    2. You might need help from your parents to figure out all the relationships.
  2. If you have access to a photocopier, make three copies of the pedigree so that you have four copies total, one for each trait you are going to evaluate. If photocopying is not an option, manually copy the pedigree.
  3. Determine the phenotype of each person on your pedigree for each of the four traits. Use a separate pedigree for each trait. Here are some tips to consider as you fill out the pedigrees:
    1. When determining if a person's earlobes are attached or detached, keep in mind that there can be a range of attachment. Do your best to decide if it looks like the earlobe is attached or detached. You can write additional observations in your lab notebook.
    2. Widow's peaks can vary considerably. When determining if a person has a widow's peak, count any sort of V-shaped hairline as a widow's peak.
      1. You may need to have a person pull their hair back to look for a widow's peak.
    3. When looking to see if someone has mid-digit hair, you may need to look closely at their hands. If they have any hair on the mid-digit, even one tiny strand, then they have mid-digit hair.
      1. If a person does not have mid-digit hair and does a lot of work with their hands, you may want to make a note of this in your lab notebook because doing a lot of manual hand work may also wear a person's mid-digit hair away.
    4. When determining if someone has a hitchhiker's thumb, keep in mind that people's thumbs come in a wide range of curvedness, from completely straight to very curved. Do your best to decide if a person's thumb looks curved or straight. You can write additional observations in your lab notebook.
  4. From your pedigrees, can you deduce the mode of inheritance for each trait or at least some of the traits? In other words, can you tell if any of the traits are dominant or recessive? If you do not have enough information to determine the mode of inheritance of a particular trait, try making a pedigree for another family.
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Ask an Expert

Do you have specific questions about your science project? Our team of volunteer scientists can help. Our Experts won't do the work for you, but they will make suggestions, offer guidance, and help you troubleshoot.

Global Connections

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDGs) are a blueprint to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all.

This project explores topics key to Good Health and Well-Being: Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages.

Variations

  • Through this science project, you recorded the phenotypes of various family members for a variety of traits, and you determined the mode of inheritance for these traits. Now, using this information, predict your own genotype for these traits. Depending on the genotype of your future mate, what possible phenotypes could your children have?
  • Through your bibliographic research, did you discover any other well-known genetic traits in humans? What are they? Do the pedigree analysis for any of those that seem interesting.
  • Most characteristics are multigenic, meaning that the observed phenotype is due to the action of several genes in combination. Eye color is an example of a multigenic trait. Do some bibliographic research to learn about how eye color is inherited. Once you know how it is inherited, draw your family pedigree for eye color. Can you use the pedigree and your knowledge about how eye color is inherited to determine the possible genotypes of the family members in your pedigree?
  • Discovering the mode of inheritance of a trait can sometimes be very difficult. For example, people have long debated whether handedness (i.e. being left-handed or right-handed) is a genetic trait. The resource below discusses one such scientific theory on handedness. Read this resource and then analyze handedness and hair whorls in your pedigree. Does your data support or refute this theory?

Careers

If you like this project, you might enjoy exploring these related careers:

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Why is it that certain breeds of cattle produce more flesh or milk? Why is one horse faster than another? The answer is that these breeds were engineered to have these special characteristics. Animal breeders need to understand genetics in order to produce animals that are bigger, faster, or more beautiful. If you are interested in working with animals and are fascinated by the science of genetics, then you should investigate this career. Read more
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Life is all around you in beauty, abundance, and complexity. Biologists are the scientists who study life in all its forms and try to understand fundamental life processes, and how life relates to its environment. They answer basic questions, like how do fireflies create light? Why do grunion fish lay their eggs based on the moon and tides? What genes control deafness? Why don't cancer cells die? How do plants respond to ultraviolet light? Beyond basic research, biologists might also apply… Read more

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Cite This Page

General citation information is provided here. Be sure to check the formatting, including capitalization, for the method you are using and update your citation, as needed.

MLA Style

Science Buddies Staff. "Pedigree Analysis: A Family Tree of Traits." Science Buddies, 20 Nov. 2020, https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science-fair-projects/project-ideas/Genom_p010/genetics-genomics/pedigree-analysis-a-family-tree-of-traits?fave=no&isb=cmlkOjEwMjEzMjk4LHNpZDowLHA6MSxpYTpHZW5vbQ&from=TSW. Accessed 19 Mar. 2024.

APA Style

Science Buddies Staff. (2020, November 20). Pedigree Analysis: A Family Tree of Traits. Retrieved from https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science-fair-projects/project-ideas/Genom_p010/genetics-genomics/pedigree-analysis-a-family-tree-of-traits?fave=no&isb=cmlkOjEwMjEzMjk4LHNpZDowLHA6MSxpYTpHZW5vbQ&from=TSW


Last edit date: 2020-11-20
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