Q 1) How different are the wet and dry earwax genes?
Answer:
switch of a single DNA unit.
Explanation
There is a specific gene that is associated with the ear wax and determine whether the people will have dry ear wax or wet ear wax. This gene is known as "ATP-binding cassette C11 gene"
Dry wax type individuals are homozygous for the gene while wet wax type individual have a difference of only one base where adenine is replaced by Guanine. While wet wax type individuals are heterozygous for the gene which means that wet wax type gene is dominant over dry wax type gene.
So we can say that the genetic difference between two genes i due to a mutation that occurred and changed only a single DNA unit base due to which two phenotypes dry and wet ear wax developed.
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2) Why is earwax important?
Answer:
It is like biological flypaper, prevents dust and insects from entering the ear.
Explanation:
Ear wax is also known as cerumen in medical terms which consists of orange, gray or yellowish waxy material. This material is secreted by ear canal in mammals including humans and this has very important role in human life.
The ear wax helps in the lubrication of ear which serves an important role to protect the ear against insects, fungi, water excess and bacteria.
If we see from outside, this ear wax is comprised of hair,skin cells and secretions from sebaceous and ceruminous glands. The major part of ear wax are unsaturated and saturated fatty acids, squalene, cholesterol and alcohols.
In severe cases, ear wax can also cause blockage of ears due to excessive deposition of wax which can lead to serious hearing disabilities.
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3) Those of us who tend to sweat a lot and have armpit odor probably have what type of earwax?
Answer:
Wet earwax
Explanation:
Studies have reported that individual with wet ear wax particularly have more armpit odor due to enhanced production of sweat.Research suggest that the less sweat or body odor was useful for Native Americans and East Asians who used to live in a cold environment and therefore they had dry ear wax. The mutation causing wet ear was specifically is prevalent area wise in more dry areas of the world like Ainu in Japan however as well as Yamato in Japan.
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Q4: Which type of earwax is dominant?
Answer:
wet ear wax
Explanation:
Wet ear wax trait (WW) or (Ww) is dominant over dry ear wax trait (ww), it means that a single copy of dominant allele W is enough for the offspring to have wet ear wax.
Studies have reported that individual with wet ear wax particularly have more armpit odor due to enhanced production of sweat.Research suggest that the less sweat or body odor was useful for Native Americans and East Asians who used to live in a cold environment and therefore they had dry ear wax.
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Q 5 If a person with wet earwax had offspring with a person who had dry earwax and all 200 of their children had wet earwax, what would be the genotype of the parent with wet earwax?
Answer:
WW
Explanation:
As we just studied that wet ear wax trait is dominant over dry ear wax trait, it means that a single copy of dominant allele W is enough for the offspring to have wet ear wax. So is question, it asked that a person with wet ear wax married a women with dry ear wax and had 200 offspring. All the offspring had wet earwax, so it clealry means that their father was homozygous for wet ear was alleles.
Let us see how:
P1: WW x ww
Gametes: W : w
Offspring: Ww: Ww
So, it means that if all offspring had wet ear wax it means that both parents were pure breeding for respective wax types, dry and wet ear wax. Otherwise there would be some proportion of offspring having wet ear wax as well.
Hope it help!
