Name: Subject: Biology

Grade: X Sec: Notes: L-9

Roll No. - Indian International School Date:

CHAPTER – 9 Heredity & Evolution

Learning Outcome:
 Define heredity
 Define variation
 Describe the life and work of Mendel
 Describe Mendel’s experimental study with pea plants
 Describe the process of sex determination

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OgN6Knmy8T8 Full chapter video

Heredity.
Heredity refers to the transmission of characters/traits from parents to offspring. An inherited trait is a
particular genetically determined feature that distinguishes a person from the others for example; attached
or free ear lobes in human beings.

Variation can be defined as any difference between the individuals in a species or groups of organisms of
any species

Difference between Asexual and sexual reproduction

 Asexual reproduction does not lead to variation (same genetic compositions in progeny and parents)
hence, no evolution.
 Sexual reproduction leads to variation in the offsprings hence causes evolution over a period

Sexual reproduction leads to variation due to following events

 Crossing over
 Independent assortment
 Random fusion of gametes during fertilization
 During DNA replication

Why variation is important?

 Raw material for selection and selection

 Helps in adaptation of environmental changes
 Formation of new characters
 Provides individuality to organisms (eg: height)
Some important terms
1. Chromosomes are long thread-like structures present in the nucleus of a cell which is made up of DNA and
proteins.
2. DNA is a chemical in the chromosome which carries the traits in a coded form.
3. Gene is the part of a chromosome which controls a specific biological function. Basic Unit of inheritance
4. Allele: alternate forms of genes ( T, t)
5. Contrasting characters: A pair of visible characters such as tall and dwarf, white and violet flowers, round
and wrinkled seeds, green and yellow seeds etc.
6. Dominant trait: The character which expresses itself in a (F1) generation is dominant trait. Example :
Tallness is a dominant character in pea plant. (traits which are expressed)
7. Recessive trait: The character which does not express itself but is present in a generation is recessive trait.
Ex. dwarfism in the pea plant. (traits which are not expressed)
8. Homozygous: A condition in which both the alleles are of same type for a particular trait for example; an
organism is tall it is expressed as TT and genes for dwarfness are written as tt (two same alleles)
8. Heterozygous: A condition in which both the alleles are of different types for a particular trait. example;
an organism has genes Tt it means it has a gene for tallness and the other for dwarfness but only tall
character is expressed. (two different alleles)
9. Genotype: It is genetic makeup of an individual for example; A pure tall plant is expressed as TT and
hybrid tall as Tt.
10. Phenotype: It is external appearance of the organism for example; a plant having Tt composition will
appear tall although it has gene for dwarfness.
11. Homologous pair of genes: Are those in which one member is contributed by the father and the other
member by the mother and both have genes for the same character at the same position.
12. Traits: Are the characteristics that are transferred from parents to offspring

How do traits get expressed?

Cellular DNA is the information source for making proteins in the cell.
A part of DNA that provides information for one particular protein is called a gene for that protein for
example; the height of a plant depends upon the growth hormone which is in turn controlled by the gene. If
the gene is efficient and more growth hormone is secreted the plant will grow tall. If the gene for that
particular protein gets altered and less of it is secreted when the plant will remain short. Both the parents
contribute equally to the DNA of next generation during sexual reproduction. They actually contribute a copy
of the same gene for example; when tall plant is crossed with short plant the gametes will have single gene
either for tallness or for shortness. F1 generation will get one gene for tallness and other for shortness also.

Acquired Traits: An acquired trait is the character developed in an individual as a result of environmental
influence. These traits are not coded by the DNA of a living organism and therefore cannot be passed on to
future generations.
E.g. an offspring born to a bodybuilder need not necessarily have extremely large muscles. This is because the
muscles were acquired by the bodybuilder during his lifetime.

Inherited Traits:These are the traits that are inherited from the parents to the offspring. Hair, skin, eye colour,
body type, height, and susceptibility to certain diseases are some of the examples of inherited traits in humans.
The inherited traits of an individual are determined by their genes.

A single cell in a human body contains 25,000 to 35,000 genes. These genes carry the traits inherited by an
individual from his parents.
Difference between Acquired Traits and Inherited Traits

Rules for the inheritance of traits: Mendel’s Contribution

Mendel’s contribution: The rules for inheritance of traits in human beings are related to the fact that both
mother and father contribute an equal amount of genetic material i.e. DNA to their offspring. So, an
offspring will get two versions of that trait from the two parents.

Gregor Mendel explained the concept of inherited traits in his experiments with the pea plant.

Mendel worked out rules for inheritance of these traits. Gregor Johann Mendel regarded as the ‘Father of
Genetics’ performed his experiments with garden peas (Pisum sativum) in the garden behind his monastery.
He observed a number of contrasting characters in garden peas and observed their inheritance.
He worked on 7 contrasting characters of a garden pea.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wYN-vYqu9hQ Why Mendel choose pea plant?

The reason for the selection of pea plants for the genetic experiments are:

 Easy to grow in the garden.

 The flowers of pea plants are hermaphrodite, i.e flowers have bisexual characteristics.
 Easy to obtain pure breed plant through self-fertilization
 The generation time of pea plants is less.
 They have excellent disease resistance and have an optimal rate of survival.
Mendel’s Experiment: Mendel started his experiment on the pea plants. He conducted first monohybrid and
then dihybrid crosses. He used the term ‘factor’ for genes. Word ‘gene’ was given by Johanssen in 1909.

Mendel Experimental Technique

a. Selection of pure plant ( plants producing similar traits in every generation)

b. Production of first generation of plants by cross breeding (hybridization)
c. Raising of second and subsequent generations by self fertilization of hybrids.

Monohybrid Cross: Is a cross dealing with single character. The cross in which Mendel showed inheritance
of dominant and recessive characters is monohybrid cross.
Steps of his experiment
1. He took pure tall (genotype TT) and pure dwarf (genotype tt) pea plants and cross pollinated them to
obtain first generation or first filial generation or F1 generation.
2. In F1 generation he obtained only tall plants. This meant that only one of the parental traits was seen, not
the mixture of the two.
3. The plants of F1 generation or progeny are then self -pollinated to obtain F2 generation or progeny.
4. Now all plants were not tall. He obtained 75% tall plants and 25% dwarf plants i.e. the phenotypic ratio
was 3:1. This indicates that in the F2 generation both tall and dwarf traits were inherited but tallness
expressed itself in F1 generation.
5. Tallness is a dominant trait and dwarfness is a recessive trait.
6. F2 generation has a genotypic ratio of 1 : 2 : 1

Conclusion:
Phenotypic ratio—Tall : Dwarf 3 : 1
Genotype ratio—Pure Tall : Hybrid Tall : Pure Dwarf 1 : 2 : 1
Dihybrid Cross: Mendel also carried out experiments to observe inheritance of two pairs of contrasting
characters, which is called dihybrid cross.
1. He cross breed pea plants bearing round green seed with plants bearing wrinkled and yellow seeds.
2. In the F1 generation he obtained all round and yellow seeds. It means round and yellow traits of seeds are
dominant features while wrinkled and green are recessive.
3. He self-pollinated the plants of F1 generation to obtain F2 generation, he obtained four different types of
seeds round yellow, round green, wrinkled yellow and wrinkled green in the ratio of 9 : 3 : 3 : 1.
4. He concluded that traits are independently inherited

Conclusion

 Round and yellow seeds-9.

 Round and green seeds-3.
 Wrinkled and yellow seeds-3.
 Wrinkled and green seeds-1.

Mendel’s laws of Inheritance

The two experiments lead to the formulation of Mendel’s laws known as laws of inheritance which are:

1. Law of Dominance
2. Law of Segregation
3. Law of Independent Assortment

1. Law of Dominance: Mendel’s first law of inheritance

This law states that in a heterozygous condition, the allele whose characters are expressed over the other allele is
called the dominant allele and the characters of this dominant allele are called dominant characters. The
characters that appear in the F1 generation are called as dominant characters. The recessive characters appear in
the F2 generation.

2. Law of Segregation: Mendel’s second law of inheritance

“During the formation of gamete, each gene(allele) separates from each other so that each gamete carries
only one allele for each gene.”
3. Law of independent assortment: Mendel’s third law of inheritance
“The law of independent assortment states that the alleles of different genes are inherited independently
within the organisms that reproduce sexually.”
That is, alleles of different genes get sorted into gametes independent of each other. The allele received for one
gene does not influence the allele received for another gene.

How do germ cells (gametes) get single set of genes from parents who have two copies in them?
Each gene set is present, not as a single long thread of DNA, but as separate independent pieces each called
a chromosome. Each cell gets two copies of the chromosome, one from each parent. Each germ cell or
gamete has one copy of it because there is reductional division in the sex organs at the time of formation of
gametes. When fertilization takes place normal number of chromosomes is restored in the progeny ensuring
the stability of DNA of the species.

How is the sex of a new born individual determined?

Different species use different strategies for this:

 In some animals(reptiles) the temperature at which fertilized eggs are kept determines
whether the developing animals will be males or females.
 Some animals like snails can change sex indicating that sex is not genetically determined.
 In human being sex of the individual is determined genetically; means genes inherited from the
parents decide the sex of the offspring.

Sex determination in human beings:

The mechanism by which the sex of an individual is determined as it begins life, is called sex determination.
The mechanism of sex determination in humans is called XX-XY mechanism.
1. A male individual contains one X and one Y chromosomes. Male produces two different kinds of gametes.
Half of the gametes having X chromosomes and other half having Y chromosomes. (heterogametic male)

2. A female individual contains two similar X chromosomes, XX. Therefore, produces same type of all
gametes. (Homogametic female)

The sex of a child is determined at the time of fertilization when male and female gametes fuse to form
zygote.
a. If a sperm carrying X chromosome fertilizes an egg carrying X chromosome, then the offspring will be a
girl.
b. If a sperm carrying Y chromosome fertilizes an egg carrying X chromosome, then the offspring will be a
boy.
Therefore, there is 50% chance of a male child being born and 50% chance of a female child being born
 Types of Chromosomes
 Autosomes: Those chromosomes which do not play any role in sex determination.
 Sex chromosomes: Those chromosomes which play a role in determining sex of the new born.

Human Chromosomes showing 23pairs

(Karyotype)

Evolution: It is the sequence, of gradual, irreversible changes which took place in the primitive organisms
over millions of years to form new present-day species. Variations that resulted in formation of new species
occurred basically due to errors in DNA copying as well as due to sexual reproduction.