Notes of HERIDITY2020

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Heredity and Evolution

Genetics: Branch of science that deals with Heredity and variation.


Heredity: It means the transmission of features/ characters/ traits from one generation to the next generation.
Variation: The differences among the individuals of a species/population are called variations. It takes place due to
environmental changes, crossing over, and recombination of genes and mutation.
Genotype: The complete set of genes in an organism’s genome is called genotype.
Phenotype: The observable characteristics in an organism make the phenotype. A phenotype is a modified genotype and
many of the phenotypes cannot be inherited. Clones are those organisms that are exact copies of each other.
Mendel and His Work on Inheritance: Gregor Johann Mendel (1822 to 1884 was known as the Father of Genetics):
Started his experiments on plant breeding and hybridization. He proposed the following laws of inheritance in living
organisms.
1- Law of Dominance
2- Law of segregation
3- Law of Independent Assortment.
Plant selected by Mendel: Pisum sativum (garden pea)
Following are the reasons for selecting Pisum sativum:
1- The plan was easily available in his area
2- The plan has a short life cycle
3- Easy to breed
4- It showed a large no of variations
Following are the contrasting features visible in garden pea (Pisum Sativum)
1- Round/wrinkled seeds
2- Tall/short plant
3- White/violet flowers
4- Inflated/flat pods
MONOHYBRID CROSS
Mendel's Experiments: Mendel conducted a series of experiments in which he crossed the pollinated plants to study one
character (at a time).
A Cross between two pea plants with one pair of contrasting characters is called a mono hybrid cross.
Cross between a tall and a dwarf plant (short).
Dominant trait: The trait which is commonly observed in an area.
Dominant Gene: The gene which always expresses itself. It is denoted by the first capital letter of the spelling of the
dominant trait
Recessive trait: The trait which is observed in very less organism in an area.
Recessive Gene: The gene which expresses itself only in the absence of the dominant gene.
Homozygous Pair of genes(pure): A pair of genes with the same type e.g.
TT- Homozygous dominant tt- Homozygous recessive
Heterozygous Pair of genes(hybrid): A pair of genes with different types e.g. Tt
Mendel Selected parents having contrasting features (pure tall/short)
F1 parents were cross breeded F2 parents were self-pollinated
Phenotypic ratio: 3:1
Genotypic ratio: 1:2:1
Phenotype ® Physical appearance [Tall or Short] Genotype ® Physical appearance [Tall or short] Observations of
Monohybrid Cross
1. All F1 progeny were tall (Tt- hybrid tall)
2. F2 progeny 1⁄4(25%) were short, 3/4 (75%) were tall
3. Phenotypic ratio F2–3:1 (3tall:1short)
4. Genotypic ratio F2 – 1:2:1
1 Pure tall (TT)
2 Hybrid tall (Tt)
1 Short (tt)
Conclusions
1. TT and Tt both are tall plants while tt is a short plant.
2. A single copy of T is enough to make the plant tall, while both copies must be “t” for the plant to be short.
3. Characters/Traits like 'T' are called dominant trait (because it expresses itself) and “t” are recessive trait (because
it remains suppressed)
From these observations, Mendel put forward the rules of inheritance

Law of Segregation: Every individual possesses a pair of alleles for a particular trait. During gamete formation, a gamete
receives only one trait from the alleles. A particular trait can be dominant or recessive in a particular generation.

Law of Dominance: Only the dominant gene expresses itself. Hence all the F1 progeny is tall.
Another example of a monohybrid cross

Dihybrid Cross

A cross between two plants having two pairs of contrasting characters

(Cross-breeding between a plant having round and green (RRyy)and wrinkled and yellow (rrYY) seeds)
Out of the total of 556 seeds
315 – Round and yellow – 9(law of dominance) (variation)
108 – Round and green – 3(Dominant trait - Parental)
101 – Wrinkled and yellow – 3(Recessive trait - Parental)
32 – Wrinkled and green – 1(Variation)
Phenotypic Ratio (9:3:3:1)
Round, yellow: 9
Round, green: 3
Wrinkled, yellow: 3
Wrinkled, green: 1
Observations
1. When RRyy was crossed with rrYY in F1 generation all were RrYy round and yellow seeds(law of dominance).
2. Self-pollination of F1 plants gave parental phenotype and two variations (recombinants round yellow & wrinkled
green) seeds plants in the ratio of 9:3:3:1
Conclusions
1. Round and yellow seeds are DOMINANT characters
2. The occurrence of new phenotypic combinations shows that genes for round and yellow seeds are inherited
independently of each other.

Law of Independent Assortment: Alleles of different characters separate independently from each other during gamete
formation. Hence every trait is independent to express itself.

SEX DETERMINATION
Determination of sex of an offspring.
FACTORS
Sex Chromosomes: In human beings, there are 23 pairs of chromosomes. Out of these 22 chromosomes, pairs are called
autosomes and the last pair of chromosome that help in deciding the gender of that individual is called sex chromosome.
XX – female XY – male

Note: The sex of a newly born individual in different species use a different strategy.
1- Environmental factors: In some animals, the temperature at which the fertilized eggs are kept determines whether
the eggs will be male or female (Turtles).
2- In snails’ individuals can change sex.
3- In humans, the sex is genetically determined as explained above
Note: It is the sperm that decides the sex of the zygote.
Note: Both the parents equally contribute to the DNA of the progeny during sexual reproduction
Note: Germ cells contain one set of genes with one gene from each parent.
Note: If the progeny plant inherited a single whole set of genes from the parents, then the above crosses would not work
Note: It is the gene that controls the trait which can be proved with the help of the following explanation.
Gene (dominant) → Good quality enzymes→ Efficient glands → Good quantity of hormones → Tall plant (dominant trait)
Alternate Genes (recessive) → Poor quality enzymes → Less efficient gland → Less hormones → Short plant (recessive
trait)

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