DELHI PUBLIC SCHOOL-BOPAL, AHMEDABAD

REFERENCE MATERIAL
CLASS 10
BIOLOGY

TOPIC: HEREDITY
(NOTE: Reading of NCERT textbook is must)

Genetics: It is the branch of biology that deals with study of heredity and variation.

Variation: It is the degree of differences found in morphological, physiological and other traits found
among individuals belonging to the same family, race and species.

Numerous variations are produced during sexual reproduction. They are caused
by 1. Chance separation of chromosomes during gametogenesis.
2. Crossing over during meiosis.
3. Chance coming together of chromosomes during fusion of gametes or fertilisation.
4. Changes in genetic material caused by faulty DNA replication.

Variations are fewer in case of asexual reproduction as recombination of genes is absent. Most of
these variations are due to mutations caused by errors in DNA replication.

Offspring: Young ones born through sexual reproduction are called offspring.

Daughters / Ramets: Young ones produced through asexual reproduction are called daughters or ramets.

ACCUMULATION OF VARIATIONS DURING REPRODUCTION

∙ Variations appear during both types of reproduction, asexual and sexual.
∙ Each generation passes on the information about the basic body design, variations obtained from its
previous generation as well as some new variations to the next generation.
∙ In this way, the variations accumulate and pass on to more and more individuals with each
generation.
∙ This increases the frequency of a particular variation, as we move to later generations. ∙
This increases the diversity in organisms.
∙ The diversity is small in case of asexually reproducing organisms as it is caused by only errors of
DNA copying mechanisms whereas the diversity is quite high in case of sexually reproducing
organisms because of reshuffling of traits during gamete formation and chance fusion of gametes
during fertilisation, apart from errors of DNA copying mechanisms.

TYPES OF VARIATIONS
Useful Variations: They survive in the nature as they provide survival advantage to the individuals.
Harmful Variations: They are eliminated as the individuals possessing them are unable to compete with
the ones having useful variations.
Neutral Variations: They may or may not survive depending upon the other variations present in
the individuals.

SIGNIFICANCE OF VARIATIONS
Preadaptation: Some of the variations act as pre-adaptations to the changing
environment. Evolution: Variations are raw materials for evolutionary processes.
Struggle for existence: Useful variations provide advantage to the individuals in the struggle for
existence and hence survival in nature.
Individuality: Variations provide a distinct identity to each and every individual.
Artificial Selection: Picking up of certain variations by breeders have resulted in development of a
number of breeds and varieties of domesticated plants and animals.

HEREDITY
Heredity is the transmission of genetic characters from parents to offspring or one generation to the
next. It is also called the phenomenon of ‘Like begets like’.

INHERITED TRAITS
∙ The traits which are controlled by genetic material of the individuals and are obtained from the
parents in inheritance are referred as Inherited Traits.
∙ Though the basic features remain the same, a large number of traits have varied expressions. ∙
Due to varied expressions of genetic traits human population shows such a variety that no two
individuals are alike.

MENDEL’S EXPERIMENTS
∙ Gregor Johann Mendel is known as father of genetics for his contribution to modern genetics. ∙ He
was the first to explain the mechanism of transmission of characters from one generation to the next.
∙ He introduced the concept of gene as a basic unit of heredity and called them ‘Factors’.

EXPERIMENTAL MATERIAL
∙ Mendel selected garden pea plant or Edible Pea (Pisum sativum) as his experimental material
because of following characteristics:
∙ Well defined, detectable contrasting traits of several characters.
∙ Flowers are self pollinating but to carry out cross pollination is also easy.
∙ Short life span – It makes possible to study several generations in a short time period. ∙
Formation of large number of seeds – large amount of experimental material
∙ Easy maintenance.

SEVEN CHARACTERS OF Pisum sativum

Mendel selected and studied seven visible characters, each with two contrasting traits. They were given
symbols, dominant with capital alphabet symbol while the recessive is given small alphabet symbol.

THREE STEPS OF MENDEL’S EXPERIMENTS

TWO TYPES OF EXPERIMENTS
Monohybrid Cross: It is a cross between two organisms of the same species which studies the inheritance of
two factors of traits of a single character. E.g. tall and dwarf pea plant.

Dihybrid Cross: It is a cross between two organisms of a species which is made to study inheritance of
pairs of factors or traits of two characters.

TERMINOLOGY

1. Gene (Factor) :
∙ Gene is the shortest segment of DNA responsible for the expression of specific character. ∙
Gene is also called as the basic unit of heredity.
∙ It is a small DNA segment that determines a biological character of an organism. ∙
Gene is situated on chromosomes.
∙ The term ‘Factor’ is used for gene for various genetic related work.

2. Alleles:
∙ Allele is an alternate form of the same gene in which one is parental and other is maternal. ∙
In case of plant height, tallness and dwarfness are the two alleles of a gene.
∙ A pair of alternative corresponding genes that are occupying the same position or locus of the
homologous chromosomes are called allele.

3. Locus:
∙ The point on a chromosomes where an allele is located is called locus.

4. Dominant allele:
∙ Out of two alleles, the one that is capable of expressing itself by hiding or suppressing its contrasting
allele is known as dominant allele.
∙ Dominant allele is an allele that expresses itself in the same form whether present in the homozygous
(pure) or in the heterozygous(hybrid) condition.
∙ It is represented by capital letter.
∙ ‘T’ is the dominant allele for tallness.

5. Recessive allele:
∙ Out of two alleles, the one that is being suppressed by its alternative allele is called as recessive
allele.
∙ Recessive is an allele that does not express itself when present with the dominant allele (in
heterozygous form).
∙ It expresses itself only in the homozygous (pure) form.
∙ It is represented by small letter .
∙ ‘t’ is the recessive allele for dwarfness.

6. Homozygous:
∙ A diploid individual carrying two identical alleles is known as homozygous.
∙ It is pure for a trait or character
 ∙ For e.g. TT and tt
∙ Capital T and T are the two identical alleles for tallness. Similarly, small t and t are the two identical
alleles for dwarfness.

7. Heterozygous:
∙ A diploid individual carrying two different alleles is known as heterozygous or hybrid. ∙
It is impure for a trait
∙ For e.g. T t

8. Genotype:
∙ A genotype is a genetic expression of an organism.
∙ The term was proposed by Johansson 1909 for hereditary or genetic constitution of an individual. ∙
Genotype is the genetic constitution of an organism.
∙ For plant height, TT, Tt and tt are the different genotypes.

9. Phenotype (Trait):
∙ It is the physical or the observable expression of an organism.
∙ The term was coined by Johansson 1909 for the visible characters of external appearance of an
organism.
∙ It is the observable characteristic of an individual.

∙ Though, the phenotype is determined by the genotype, but certain genes do not express for number
of reasons. So genotype and phenotype of an organism may not be the same.

10. Character:
∙ It refers to a general feature of an organism such as eye color, plant height etc.

11. Parental generation:

∙ The plants used as parents in a cross are said to represent parental generation, designed by ‘P’.

12. Filial generation:

∙ The progeny obtained as a result of crossing between parents is a hybrid progeny and is called First
filial generation, represented by F1 (filial=offsprings).
∙ The progeny obtained as a result of self-fertilization among F1 plants represents second filial
generation represented as F2.

MONOHYBRID CROSS
It is a cross that is made to study the inheritance of only one character with two contrasting traits.

For e.g.
One character - Height of the pea plant
Two contrasting traits - Tall and Dwarf
For e.g.
One Character – Colour of the flower
Two contrasting traits – Violet or Purple and White

For e.g.
One character – Shape of the seed
Two contrasting traits – Round and Wrinkled
For e.g.
One character – Colour of seed
Two contrasting traits – Yellow and Green

DIHYBRID CROSS
It is a cross that is made to study the inheritance of two characters simultaneously, each character with
two contrasting traits.

For e.g.
Two Characters and their contrasting traits
Shape of the seed – Round and Wrinkled
Colour of the seed – Yellow and Green
For e.g.
Two charaters
Height of plant – Tall and Dwarf
Colour of pod – Green and Yellow
For e.g.
Two characters
Colour of the pod – Green and Yellow
Colour of seed - Yellow and Green

MENDELISM
Principles of inheritance discovered by Mendel are called Mendelism.

1. Paired Factors:
Each character is represented in an organism by two factors (genes) or alleles which occur on
the same gene locus on the two homologous chromosomes.

They may represent the same trait (e.g. TT) or different traits (e.g. Tt).

2. Law of Dominance:
It is the phenomenon of expression of only one allele (gene) out of the two alleles (genes) present
in a hybrid individual.
 The allele (gene) which expresses its effect in presence of its contrasting allele (gene), in the
hybrid is called dominant factor or allele or gene.

The allele of the pair in the hybrid, which is unable to express itself in presence of another
allele (gene), is referred as recessive allele or gene or factor.

3. Law of Segregation:
The law states that when any individual produces gametes (gametogenesis), the alleles (pair of
genes) of a character separate randomly so that each gamete receives only one gene (allele) of
that particular pair.

4. Law of Independent Assortment:

The two factors (genes) of a character separate and pair independently of the two factors of
other characters during gametogenesis and fertilization. It results in recombination of traits.

HOW DO THESE TRAITS GET EXPRESSED?

∙ Factors or alleles are actually genes or segments of DNA that control the expression of traits. ∙ They
control the synthesis of proteins and enzymes as per the information stored in them. ∙ A dominant
gene/factor takes part in the synthesis of a fully functional protein or enzyme so that it produces its
morphological or physiological effect.
∙ A recessive factor is unable to produce the fully effective protein or enzyme.
∙ As a result, it is unable to express its effect in the presence of dominant factor. ∙
Its effect becomes apparent only when the recessive alleles occures in a pair.

∙ For e.g.
∙ The height of the plant depends upon the amount of growth promoting hormone. ∙ If the plant has
a dominant gene, then it will produce an enzyme that will effectively take part in production of
Growth Hormone. The resultant plant will be tall.
∙ But the recessive gene produces a less effective enzyme and hence less amount of growth hormone is
synthesized.
∙ If both the genes are recessive, then only the resultant plant will be dwarf.
∙ But if one gene is for tall and another for dwarf, the resultant plant will be tall due to effective
synthesis of growth hormone.

EQUAL CONTRIBUTION BY BOTH PARENTS

∙ During sexual reproduction both the parents contribute equal amount of genetic material to the
progeny.
∙ This is possible because gametes are haploid in nature.
∙ They are formed by meiosis cell division.
∙ The gametes have only one set of chromosomes i.e. only one set of genes.
∙ During fertilisation of gametes, they fuse together to form a diploid zygote.
∙ This restores the original chromosomal number in the offspring.
∙ Offspring will have two sets of chromosomes or two sets of genes of every character.

SEX DETERMINATION
Definition: Establishment of male and female individuals through differential development of their
sex organs is called sex determination.

Environmental determination of sex

Marine mollusc and marine worms develop into females if growing alone. In company of a female,
they develop into males.
In turtle, Chrysema picta an incubation temperature above 33oC produces female while a temperature
below 28oC produce s only males.
In lizard, Agama agama, high incubation temperature produces male offspring.
Snails are known to change their sex.

Genetic or chromosomal determination of sex.

In human beings and a number of other animals there are two types of chromosomes - autosomes and
allosomes
Autosomes – the chromosomes which control normal functions of the body, other than sex determination.
Allosomes / Sex chromosomes – the chromosomes which determine the sex of the individual in unisexual
organisms.

∙ Human beings have 23 pairs of chromosomes, 22 pairs of autosomes and one pair of sex
chromosome.
∙ The two sex chromosomes of females are similar and are called XX chromosomes. ∙ The two sex
chromosomes of males are dissimilar, one is normal sized X chromosome and the other is smaller
called Y chromosome.
∙ The chromosome compliment of human females is 44 + XX while that of males is 44 + XY. ∙ Human
female produces only one type of ova 22 + X, while males produce two types of sperms 22 + X and 22
+ Y (Both are produced in equal amount).
∙ If a sperm containing 22 + Y chromosomes fuses with ova (22 + X)it results in a male child and if a
sperm containing 22 + X fuses with ova (22 + X) it results in a female child.
∙ Therefore, sex of the child is determined by inheritance of X or Y chromosomes from males. ∙
There is a 50:50 chance of a boy or a girl being born.