In Inheritance: How Our Genes Change Our Lives and Our Lives Change Our Genes, author Sharon Moalem uses a concoction of historical happenings, real-life experiences, and patient case history to portray two main biological concepts: deviations from Mendelian genetics and epigenetics (Moalem, 2014). In regards to the AP Biology curriculum, these two concepts relate, respectively, to the third and fourth big ideas that make-up the course’s framework. The third big idea in the AP Biology curriculum declares that, “Living systems store, retrieve, transmit, and respond to information essential to life processes” (The College Board, 2015). The continual survival and growth in all living organisms hinge on the genetic information they inherit from
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By studying the interactions between biological systems and its in environment, one can begin to understand why changes - be it on the molecular level or an entire population’s level - occur and the important role it takes in survival. This idea can be seen in Sharon Moalem’s book, Inheritance: How Our Genes Change Our Lives and Our Lives Change Our Genes, when he touches on the study of epigenetics. Epigenetics relates to the fourth big idea in how it expands on its underlying statement of essential knowledge 4.C.2, which states that “Environmental factors influence the expression of the genotype in an organism” (The College Board, 2015). Defined in the book as the study of how certain factors can alter gene expression in one generation and sometimes pass on these alterations, Moalem addresses epigenetics through his existing medical knowledge and various conducted studies (Moalem, 2014). For an example, Moalem first introduces the idea of imprinting, in which the parent a gene is inherited from carries more importance than the actual gene. In the Prader-Willi and Angelman syndromes, although they are totally different conditions, the parent a person inherits the genes from is the deciding factor in which condition someone is afflicted by. Another way Moalem demonstrates how one’s …show more content…
His book links to the third and fourth big ideas in the AP Biology curriculum framework, associating closely with learning objectives 3.15, 3.16, 3.17, 4.23, and 4.24 (The College Board, 2015). I thoroughly enjoyed the variety of ways the author chose to present his ideas, and my only complaint is that it was sometimes hard to follow Moalem’s haphazard way of storytelling, which was something akin to the unpredictable swing of
By studying the interactions between biological systems and its in environment, one can begin to understand why changes - be it on the molecular level or an entire population’s level - occur and the important role it takes in survival. This idea can be seen in Sharon Moalem’s book, Inheritance: How Our Genes Change Our Lives and Our Lives Change Our Genes, when he touches on the study of epigenetics. Epigenetics relates to the fourth big idea in how it expands on its underlying statement of essential knowledge 4.C.2, which states that “Environmental factors influence the expression of the genotype in an organism” (The College Board, 2015). Defined in the book as the study of how certain factors can alter gene expression in one generation and sometimes pass on these alterations, Moalem addresses epigenetics through his existing medical knowledge and various conducted studies (Moalem, 2014). For an example, Moalem first introduces the idea of imprinting, in which the parent a gene is inherited from carries more importance than the actual gene. In the Prader-Willi and Angelman syndromes, although they are totally different conditions, the parent a person inherits the genes from is the deciding factor in which condition someone is afflicted by. Another way Moalem demonstrates how one’s …show more content…
His book links to the third and fourth big ideas in the AP Biology curriculum framework, associating closely with learning objectives 3.15, 3.16, 3.17, 4.23, and 4.24 (The College Board, 2015). I thoroughly enjoyed the variety of ways the author chose to present his ideas, and my only complaint is that it was sometimes hard to follow Moalem’s haphazard way of storytelling, which was something akin to the unpredictable swing of