These proteins combine with other chemicals, within the body, to produce the cells, tissues, organs, organ systems, and finally the organism itself. The appearance of these organs, such as the shape of ones nose, length of the fingers, or the color of the eyes is called the phenotype. Even though humans contain hands with five fingers, two ears, or one nose, there are subtle differences that separate these organs from another. There are subtle differences in a person's genes that allows for these different phenotypes. In this lab we are going to observe some of these differences in phenotype and try to determine why they happened.
All human hands look pretty much alike.
There are genes on your chromosomes that code for the characteristics making up your hand. Choose a partner and, with a metric ruler, measure the length of their right hand in centimeters. Now have your partner do the same to you. Record your measurements in Table 1 . 2. Have your partner measure the width of your hand, straight across the palm, and record the data in Table 1 .