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Farm Records: Gene Changes in Cattle and Wheat

Grade 8 gene mutation practice: use a farm's calf records and wheat test plots to explain how changed proteins can harm, help or have no effect.

Grade 8ScienceInteractive · Printable

Aligned toMS-LS3-1

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What’s included

Single worksheet
Auto-graded online
1 NGSS standard
Printable answer key
11 questions
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Details

Format: Interactive · Printable
Grade: Grade 8
Subject: Science
Question types: Fill in the blank, Multiple choice, Sorting, Short answer

About this worksheet

What students practice

Students explain how a change in a gene can change a protein and the trait it affects.
Students use farm data to classify a mutation's effects as harmful, helpful or neutral.

How to use

Draw the chain gene → protein → trait on the board before students read. Point out the note about differences of 2 or less before Part 1.

Curriculum

NGSS standard covered

MS-LS3-1

Explain how gene mutations can change proteins and have harmful, helpful or neutral effects on an organism.

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Name Date

Farm Records: Gene Changes in Cattle and Wheat

Trace each mutation from gene to protein to trait, then judge its effects.

Part 1: The calf records

Read the passage and the calf table. In these records, a difference of 2 or less is normal variation and does not count as an effect.

Two Mutations on the Vukovich Farm

1Lucía Vukovich's family raises beef cattle and grows winter wheat on a farm in central Kansas. For her eighth-grade science project, Lucía studied two gene changes that matter on the farm, one in the cattle and one in the wheat. She used the farm's calf records from the past five years and a set of test plots her family planted in the wheat field. Many visitors to the farm think that a mutation is bad news for any plant or animal that has one, and Lucía wanted to test that idea with real records.

2A gene is a section of DNA that holds the instructions for building one protein. A mutation is a change in the DNA of a gene. The shape of a protein decides the job it can do, so a mutation that changes the protein's shape or length can change how well it works.

3In cattle, one gene holds the instructions for a protein called myostatin. Myostatin acts like a brake on muscle growth: it signals muscle cells to slow down and stop growing. In some cattle this gene has a mutation that leaves out a short piece of the instructions. Lucía calls it version M. The protein built from version M is too short to do its job. A different mutation, version S, changes a single letter of the DNA, but the protein built from it has exactly the same building blocks in the same order as the usual protein. The calves in Lucía's table carry two copies of the same version.

4Many wheat plants carry a mutation, version T, in a gene for a growth-control protein. In typical wheat, this protein holds back stem growth until a plant hormone, a chemical growth signal, removes it. The protein built from version T has a changed shape, and the hormone can no longer remove it easily. Lucía planted typical wheat and version T wheat side by side, with the same soil, water and fertilizer. In June a strong storm swept across the field. Wheat that is knocked flat is hard to harvest and often loses grain to rot. She also planted extra seeds of both kinds at two depths to see how many seedlings came up.