SEVEN SQUARE ACADEMY

Academic Year: 2022 – 2023

Secondary Section – Class 10
Learning Points (Science – Biology)

CHAPTER NO. 9: HEREDITY

• Inheritance can be defined as the process of how a child receives genetic information from the
parent.
• Heredity is the transmission of characteristics from one generation to another.
• Genetics is the branch of biology which deals with the study of heredity and variations.
• Variations arise usually during the process of sexual reproduction. They may be few in asexual
reproduction, but many in case of sexual reproduction.
• The minor variations arising during sexual reproduction are caused by slight inaccuracies in DNA
copying. In sexual reproduction, variations are also caused by crossing over during meiosis.
• Beneficial variations help the species to survive better in the environment.
• Nature selects the beneficial variations thereby leading to evolution.
• Sexual reproduction produces offspring with similar body design of the parents. However, the
offsprings are not identical and show a great deal of variation from the parents.
Importance of Variation:
i. Depending upon the nature of variations, different individuals would have different kinds of
advantages. e.g., Bacteria that can withstand heat will survive better in a heat wave.
ii. Main advantage of variation to species is that it increases the chances of its survival in a changing
environment.
Mendel and His Work on Inheritance:
• Gregor Johann Mendel (1822-1884) started his experiments on plant breeding and
hybridization. He proposed the laws of inheritance in living organisms.
• During that period, he chose some distinct characteristics of the peas and conducted some cross-
pollination/ artificial pollination on the pea lines that showed stable trait inheritance and
underwent continuous self-pollination. Such pea lines are called true-breeding pea lines.
• Mendel is known as the Father of Genetics.
• Plant selected by Mendel was Pisum sativum (garden pea). Mendel used a number of varieties of
garden pea to study the inheritance of seven pairs of contrasting characters.
• He selected a pea plant for his experiments for the following reasons:

i. The pea plant can be easily grown and maintained.

ii. They are naturally self-pollinating but can also be cross-pollinated.
iii. It is an annual plant; therefore, many generations can be studied within a short period of
time.
iv. It has several contrasting characters.
• While experimenting, Mendel found that certain factors were always being transferred down to
the offspring in a stable way. Those factors are now called genes i.e., genes can be called the
units of inheritance.

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Seven Pairs of Contrasting Characters:
Character Dominant Trait Recessive Trait
Height of a plant Tall Dwarf
Seed colour Yellow Green
Seed shape Round Wrinkled
Flower colour Violet/ Purple White
Flower position Axial Terminal
Pod shape Inflated Constricted
Pod colour Green Yellow

Monohybrid Cross (Inheritance of One Character):

In this experiment, Mendel took two pea plants of opposite traits (one short and one tall) and crossed
them. He found the first-generation offspring were tall and called it F1 progeny. Then he crossed F1
progeny and obtained both tall and short plants in the ratio 3:1.

TT – Homozygous Dominant; Tt – Heterozygous; tt – Homozygous Recessive.

With the help of monohybrid cross, he formulated the following Laws of Inheritance:

Mendel’s Law of Dominance:

“When parents with pure, contrasting traits are crossed together, only one form of trait appears in
the next generation. The hybrid offspring will exhibit only the dominant trait in the phenotype.”

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In this law, each character is controlled by distinct units called factors, which occur in pairs. If the
pairs are heterozygous, one will always dominate the other.
Law of dominance explains that in a monohybrid cross between a pair of contrasting traits, only one
parental character will be expressed in the F1 generation and both parental characters will be
expressed in the F2 generation in the ratio 3:1.
The one which is expressed in the F1 generation is called the dominant trait and the one which is
suppressed is called a recessive trait.

Mendel’s Law of Segregation (Law of Purity of Gametes):

“During the formation of gamete, each gene separates from each other so that each gamete carries
only one allele for each gene.”
This law explains that the pair of alleles segregate from each other during meiosis (gamete formation)
so that only one allele will be present in each gamete.
In a monohybrid cross, both the alleles are expressed in the F2 generation without any blending. Thus,
the law of segregation is based on the fact that each gamete contains only one allele.
The law of segregation is known as the law of purity of gametes because a gamete carries only a
recessive or a dominant allele but not both the alleles.

Dihybrid Cross:
In a dihybrid cross experiment, Mendel considered two traits, each having two alleles. He crossed
wrinkled-green seed and round-yellow seeds and observed that all the first-generation progeny (F1
progeny) were round-yellow. This meant that dominant traits were the round shape and yellow colour.
He then self-pollinated the F1 progeny and obtained 4 different traits: round-yellow, round-green,
wrinkled-yellow, and wrinkled-green seeds in the ratio 9:3:3:1.

With the help of dihybrid cross, Mendel formulated Third Law of Inheritance namely, Mendel’s Law
of Independent Assortment.

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Mendel’s Law of Independent Assortment:
The Law of Independent Assortment states that “a pair of traits segregates independently of another
pair during gamete formation.” As the individual heredity factors assort independently, different traits
get equal opportunity to occur together.
Ratios Monohybrid Cross Dihybrid Cross
Phenotypic ratio 3:1 9:3:3:1
Genotypic ratio 1:2:1 1:2:2:4:2:2:1:1:1

Important Terms Related to Mendel’s Experiment:

Dominant: The gene which expresses itself in F1 hybrid generation is known as dominant gene.
Recessive: The gene which is unable to express itself in presence of the dominant gene.
Genotype: It is the genetic constitution of an organism which determines the phenotypic
characters.
Phenotype: It is the outward appearance of an individual.
Progeny: The offspring produced as a result of reproduction of the parents.
Dominant trait: A genetic trait is considered dominant if it is expressed in a person who has only
one copy of that gene i.e., a trait which phenotypically expressed in heterozygote.
Recessive trait: A genetic trait is considered recessive if it is expressed only when two copies of
the recessive gene are present.
Homozygous: Having two identical alleles of the same gene.
Heterozygous: Having dissimilar alleles at corresponding chromosomal loci.
Monohybrid cross: A type of cross in which only one pair of contrasting characters are
considered.
Dihybrid cross: A type of cross in which the inheritance of two pairs of contrasted characters is
considered.
Allele: Either of a pair (or series) of alternative forms of a gene that can occupy the same locus
on a particular homologous pair of chromosomes and that control the same character.
Gene: A segment of DNA that is involved in producing a polypeptide chain and forms the basic
unit of heredity.
Trait: A trait is a distinct variant of a phenotypic character of an organism that may be inherited
or environmentally determined.

Sex Determination:

• In humans, sex of an individual is

determined by a pair of sex
chromosomes.
• Humans have 22 pairs (44) of
autosomes and 1 pair (2) of sex
chromosomes or allosomes.

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Questions to be solved in notebook:
1) How does the creation of variations in a species promote survival?
2) How do Mendel’s experiment show that traits are inherited independently?
3) How is the equal genetic contribution of male and female parents ensured in the progeny?
4) Why did Mendel choose pea plant for his experiments?
5) A woman has only daughters. Analyse the situation genetically and provide a suitable
explanation.
6) Show the cross between green pod and yellow pod. Derive their phenotypic and genotypic ratio.