In this STEM Case you are working as a veterinary technician and are introduced to your patient, Claire. Claire is a Great Dane who is experiencing rapid weight loss and lethargy even though she is eating a lot. You must examine Claire to determine the cause of her weight loss. Click on the tab entitled Case and proceed through the case study to answer questions 4 and 5. Describe Claire’s symptoms. Explain how they were related to metabolism and homeostasis.

Metabolism is the amount of energy the body extracts, stores and uses to maintain itself. The relationship between homeostasis and metabolism is such that homeostasis is required for metabolism to work efficiently and effective metabolism is one way the body maintains homeostasis.

Explanation:

Claire describes her mood as decent though lately she feels more overwhelmed than passionate about her work. Claire used to love to read, but she attributes her poor eyesight for not enjoying that activity lately. Becoming tearful, Claire opens up about having spent so much energy being a mother that she’s fearful what her role will be when her kids go to college. Furthermore, her mother’s health is declining and her she worries her husband, who has been spending a lot of time away from home, will leave her. Claire is able to sleep thanks to taking a pill before bed. During the day, she is lacking in energy because her activity level is minimal. Since she’s stopped working and mainly stays home watching television and going on the internet, Claire has gained thirty pounds. Claire’s mom has been critical of her use of Lortabs and drinking alcohol, which Claire believes helps her to hold everything together. By the end of the interview, Claire says she’s tired of letting her family down.

A. All short plants are homozygous for that trait

Explanation:

Although there is no visible punnet square but the question is very straightforward. The gene involved here is that coding for height in pea plants. The tall allele (T) is dominant over the short allele (t) i.e. the allele for tallness will always mask the expression of the short allele in the gene.

Due to this principle of dominance, the trait for tallness can either be homozygous, TT (same allele for tallness) or heterozygous, TT (different alleles resulting from the combination of tallness allele and shortness allele). Note that, this heterozygous state is possible because of the dominance the tallness allele (T) has over the shortness allele (t).

However, the recessive trait which is shortness can only be expressed in a homozygous state i.e. when the allele for shortness are the same in the gene i.e. tt