How can the inheritance of human genetic disorders be studied diredtly? It is obviously not possible to perform a study by designing crosses between individuals and analyzing large numbers of offspring. With PedigreeLab students choose a gene from a list of mutant genes that cause actual genetic disorders in humans. Pedigree analysis is used to simulate the inheritance of these genes for human genetic disorders, and RFLP analysis is used to study recombination in humans. Combining RFLP analysis with pedigree analysis enables students to understand how the location of a gene can be assigned to a chromosome; and to pinpoint the location of a gene on a chromosome by using recombination data to generate a genetic map of that chromosome.

The purpose of this laboratory is to:

• Demonstrate how pedigree analysis can be used to determine the mode of inheritance for a genetic disorder across several generations of humans.

• Demonstrate how recombination data from genetic crosses can be interpreted and applied to discover the location of a gene on a chromosome and to develop chromosome maps.

• Simulate the use of restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) analysis to develop genetic maps of a chromosome.