Question

20. Dr. Sammons has been stealthily performing a PheWAS experiment in all of his ABIO 329 classes. He genotypes all of the members of the class and then asks what genotypes are associated with certain phenotypes. There are 132 students in the class and Dr. Sammon measures these phenotypes directly after the final exam. For each of the three phenotypes being measured, describe if you think Dr. Sammons will ultimately link genotype to phentoype why?

Hint: Dr. Sammons thinks there is a different rationale for all three.

A) Happiness

B) Resting Heart Rate

C) Height

Answer 1

Genotype is the genetic constituition of a trait whereas its physical expression is its phenotype. A trait may be controlled at varying levels by genes, environmental factors and the gene-environment interaction.

Traits which are controlled by more than one factor, are referred to as multifactorial traits. Here, happiness, resting heart rate and height ; are traits whose phenotypic expression are not just linked to genes, but other factors as well.

• Happiness is related to mental and physical well being, which is dependent on food intake, metabolism (genes) , social environment and other factors.
• Resting heart rate is dependent on physical activity levels and other physiological conditions of body (controlled by genes and environment).
• Height is dependent on genes and food intake. There are many genes which add their effects to determine height, however food intake is also a determining factor.

Hence, we cannot say that these traits will be ultimately linked only to genotype.