2. Mendel focused on traits that had two alleles (A or a) in which one was dominant and the other was recessive. Yet many genes may have multiple alleles. What is an example in your book of a gene that has multiple alleles

The example of a gene having multiple alleles is ABO blood system in human.

Explanation:

Sometimes the gene can have three or more alleles on the same locus, but in reality only 2 alleles are present in the individual.

It is a deviation from Mendel's law of inheritance.

There are three allelic forms of gene of blood group on the locus as A,B and O and have more than two phenotype for a gene.

Type  A (iA), Type B (IB), OR type O

the 3 combinations can give genotype of

type A, Type B, type AB or O BLOOD GROUPS.

Type A can be homozygous as IA IA or heterozygous as ( having one O allele) IAI

same genotype for B is also there.

Type O is recessive with two O alleles.

Since A or B type are equally dominnat they give rise to AB type.

equal distribution i think.

"1. it should be, it has been for about 20 years, and it's really not much different in the end than breeding animals to have particular traits. there are always concerns about genetically engineered animals/plants affecting the environment in unexpected negative ways, but i can't think of an example where the fears didn't turn out to be baseless.  

first, as you point out, it would be a great advance in pharmacology, to be able to tailor drugs and their doses to me. the pros involve better medical treatment. the cons involve privacy issues like insurance companies denying coverage to people with genetic risk factors. looking at dna markers wouldn't affect the frequency of genetic diseases, but it would allow detection of them earlier. and ok, actually i suppose that if people used this information to avoid having children with genetic diseases, some might decrease in frequency."