Physical Traits and Family Genetics

Now, take a look at your friends and family. They all have different gene combinations and different traits. What are some of your physical traits? What traits do you share with your family members?

What do genes do?

• cover your legs with a sturdy material called denim

• carry information that gives living things certain traits

• give parents information about what to name their puppy

• make sure all puppies are born with the same color fur

According to the passage, the puppies in the photo have some of the same information in their genes. How does this affect the way they look?

• They all have the same short gray fur and black spots.

• They all like to play with the same toy, a soft purple ball.

• They all move in the same ways at the same exact times.

• They all have eyes, ears, noses, four paws, and small tails.

Read the following sentences from the text. "But the genes from each parent can also have different information about traits. For instance, a mother dog might have short fur. The father dog might have long fur. Each of their puppies might receive a different combination of genes about fur length from its parents. But only one of those traits - long or short fur - will show up in each puppy's actual fur. In this way, one puppy from the same parents may have short fur, while its brother or sister may have long fur!" What conclusion can you draw from this evidence?

Why do puppies from the same parents look different?

• The parents get to pick only one parent that the puppy can look like so they take turns.

• Each puppy chooses which parent they want to look more like when they are born.

• The puppy's genes depend on the year that they were born more than their parents' genes.

• Each puppy gets a different combination of genes which makes them look unique.

What is the main idea of this text?

• Puppies, like humans, are born with different gene combinations from their parents that help them look both alike and different from other puppies.

• Dogs and humans have about 20,000 genes and the length of a dog's fur can be determined by just one of those genes.

• Some physical characteristics of puppies are their eye color, fur color, tail length, how tall they are, the shape of their ears, and the size of their teeth.

• When a puppy's mother has short fur and its father has long fur, the puppy will be born with short fur in some parts of its body and long fur in others.