Question

4. What is the law of independent assortment and what features of the cell cycle contribute to this phenomenon? Please be specific and concise.

5. briefly explain why is it possible to have a calico cat that is male?

6. Why don't we get insulin from pigs anymore to treat diabetes? Please be concise.

Answer 1

1) The law of independent assortment states that one allele separates independently from another allele of the same gene. That means during the process of reproduction, different genes separate from each other in an independent manner.
Independent assortment generally occurs during the time of meiosis. During the meiosis process, the gametes get independently assorted by random crossing over and thus share the maternal and paternal genes. The genes are inherited in an independent manner and assorted to a set of newly formed gametes during the process of meiosis.

2) The probability of a male calico cat is about 1 in 3000. In normal conditions, the male cats are only carrying one X chromosome and thus have only black color. Calico cats are purely inherited from the mother and thus they are mostly females because they have two X chromosomes. A male cat can be calico only during a genetic disorder called the Klinefelter's syndrome where the male inherits two X chromosome from the female parent apart from the Y chromosome and has a genetic makeup of XXY.

3) Animal insulins were previously used in order to make up for the insulin deficiency in humans. But the pork derived insulin was seen to trigger huge allergic responses and formation of numerous anti-insulin antibodies within the humans that were injected with pig insulin. This is the reason to switch to genetically engineered human insulin to be used in place of pig insulin to avoid allergic and high immune responses.