Introduction

Scientists have figured out how to extract DNA from various cells. Extracting DNA is very important concerning heredity, legal issues, and criminal issues. In this lab, you will simulate collecting human cells and will conduct various virtual laboratory techniques in order to extract DNA from a human cell.

Objectives

1. Explain natural selection.
2. Analyze the progression of disease mutation or traits based on the theory of natural selection.
3. Provide the scientific names of various organisms.

Questions 1 – 10 are short answer questions and should be answered in 2 to 3 words or 1 to 2 complete sentences.

1. What is the scientific name of the common house mouse? (Make sure you type it correctly.)

2. What color was most of the mice in the beginning of the activity?

3. Form a hypothesis as to what you think will happen (in reference to the mice and fur color) if no cats are allowed in the granary?

4. What actually happened to the number of the mice?

5. Why do you think what you observed occurred?

6. Form a hypothesis as to what you think will happen (in reference to the mice and fur color) when cats are allowed into the granary?

7. Why did the number of yellow mice decrease?

8. What happened to the number of yellow mice when the granary was painted yellow?

9. In order for the different numbers of the mice to change, did the gene for color mutate depending on the presence of the cat or color of paint?

10. Did the individual mice present change their color based on the presence of the cat or color of paint?

Question 11 is an extended response question and should be at least 200 words.

Consider the following scenario. You suddenly realize that you have a population of mice living in your attic. You do not want to put out traps or poison, so you decide to get a cat. The cat is fast; however, the cat is not as fast as the very fast mice. There are a total of 20 mice living in the attic. Of the 20 mice, 10 are very fast, 5 are medium fast, and 5 are very slow.

11. A few weeks pass, and there are fewer mice; however, you still have some mice in the attic. After a few months, it seems that there are even more mice than there were to begin with. Why do you have more mice than you did when you first bought the cat? Why do we not see situations such as this happening in humans as often as we see them in other organisms?