HEREDITY AND EVOLUTION

GENETICS
Branch of biology that deals with the facts and laws of heredity and variations.
Genetics is the science which tries to explain why living things resemble their
parents, and yet differ from them.
Inheritance
The process by which characters are passed on from parent to progeny. Inheritance is the
basis of heredity.
Offspring is an individual formed from parents as a result of sexual reproduction.
Clone is a product of asexual reproduction. It is a carbon copy of the parent.
Heredity
The tendency of the young ones to resemble their parents.
Variation
The degree by which progeny differ from their parents.
Rules for the inheritance of traits
The father and mother contribute practically equal amounts of genetic material to the
child. This means that each trait can be influenced by both paternal and maternal DNA.
Thus, for each trait there are two version (alleles) in each child.
Gregor Johann Mendel (1822-1884), the father of genetics, was born on 22nd July, 1822 in
Heizendorf, a village in Austria.
The credit for our present understanding of the mechanism of heredity goes to an Austrian
monk, Gregor Johann Mendel. He performed a large number of experiments on pea plants
and deduced his observations to mathematical laws. These laws are called Mendel’s laws
of inheritance or Mendelism
• Mendel performed his experiments with garden pea plant (Pisum sativum).
• He conducted artificial pollination/cross pollination experiments using several true-
breeding varieties having contrasting characters.
• He observed one trait at a time.
• He hybridised plants with alternate forms of a single trait (Monohybrid cross). The
seeds thus produced were grown to develop into plants of first filial generation (F1).
• Mendel then self-pollinated the F1 plants to generate plants of second filial
generation (F2)
• Later, Mendel also crossed pea plants that differed in two characters (Dihybrid
cross)
Mendel’s experiments
 Mendel took into consideration seven characters, each with two contrasting
alternatives; for example, a tall plant and a short (dwarf) plant, white and red colour
of the flowers, round and wrinkled seeds, and so on.
Mendel used English alphabets to represent characters. Capital letter is used for
dominant and small letter form if the same alphabet for recessive character.
Eg: Tall is the dominant character for height; capital ‘T’ represents the tallness
and small‘t’ represents dwarfness.
• Each organism has two alleles for each character (TT, Tt, tt) one each from mother
and father.
• TT and tt are pure forms and called homozygous and Tt is called heterozygous.
• Factor – it is a particulate hereditary unit.
• Gene – it is a segment of DNA molecule which is located in the chromosomes that
determines a particular trait.
• Alleles or Allomorph– Alleles are alternate forms of the same gene(individual genes
at a given locus).
• Phenotype – Type of organism with respect to the visible expression.
• Genotype – The genetic constitution of a particular character.
• Homozygous – An individual whose chromosome bear two identical alleles at a
given locus.
• Heterozygous – An individual whose chromosomes bear unlike or dissimilar alleles
at a given locus
• Dominance – A gene that expresses itself morphologically in presence of its allelic
gene is a dominant gene.
• Recessive – A gene that cannot express itself morphologically in presence of its
allelic gene is a recessive gene.
• Hybrid – it is a product of a cross between two parents which differ from each in
one or more characters.
• Monohybrid cross – Cross in which parents differ in only one pair of contrasting
characters.
• Dihybrids cross – Dihybrid crosses are those in which two pairs of contrasting
characters are involved.
Monohybrid cross
Mendel first crossed two plants which differed constantly in one
character; such cross is known as monohybrid cross.
For monohybrid cross, Mendel first crossed a tall plant and a dwarf
plant.

Punnet Square (checker board)

Monohybrid - Phenotypic ratio

Tall Dwarf
3 : 1
Genotypic ratio
TT Tt tt
1 : 2 : 1
The ratio of TT:Tt: tt = ¼: ½: ¼
Mendel’s observations
 • F1 progenies always resembled one of the parents and trait of other parent was not
seen.
• F2 progeny expressed both the parental traits in the proportion 3:1
• The contrasting traits did not show any blending at either F1 or F2 stage.
• Based on the monohybrid crosses Mendel proposed (1) Law of dominance and (2)
Law of segregation
I. Law of dominance
The law of dominance states that “when two contrasting factors for a
character are found together one dominates over the other and is expressed in the
first filial generation (F1)”
II. Law of segregation or Law of purity of gametes
The law states that “when a pair of alleles is brought together in a
hybrid, they do not fuse or mix each other but separate and segregate when the
hybrid forms gametes.”
The gametes receive only one of the two factors.
III. Law of independent assortment
Based on the dihybrid crosses Mendel proposed the law of independent assortment.
The law states that “when two pairs of traits are combined in a hybrid, segregation
of one pair of characters is independent of the other pair of characters.”
Test cross
If the F1 hybrid is crossed with any one of the parents, it is said to the back cross.
When the F1 hybrid is crossed with its recessive parents, it is said to be the test
cross.
• Test cross is method to determine the genotype of an organism ie; to test whether an
organism is homozygous or heterozygous.
• In this cross, the organism with unknown dominant genotype is crossed with the
recessive parent.
Dihybrid cross
Dihybrid crosses are those in which two pairs of contrasting characters are involved.
• Mendel studied the inheritance of round (R) and wrinkled (r) characters of seed coat
along with the yellow (Y) and green (y) colour of seeds.
 • Mendel crossed pea plant having round- shaped and yellow coloured seeds (double
dominant) with a pea plant having wrinkle-shaped green- coloured seeds (double
recessive). All the F1 offspring (dihybrids) were round and yellow-seeded.

• Round shape is dominant over wrinkled. Yellow colour is dominant over green.Total no
of offsprings in second generation = 16
• Round yellow = 9
• Round green = 3
• Wrinkled yellow = 3
• Wrinkled green = 1
• Thus, the offsprings of F2 generation were produced in the ratio of
• 9:3:3:1. this ratio is called dihybrid ratio phenotypic ratio
• The F2 hybrids produce the combinations like
• Round Yellow
• RRYY =1
• RRYy =2 9
• Rr YY =2
• RrYy =4
• Round green
• RR yy =1 3
• Rryy =2
• Wrinkled yellow
• rrYY =1 3
 • rrYy =2
• Wrinkled green
• rryy =1 1
• Dihybrid genotypic ratio 1:2:2:4:1:2:1:2:1

Chromosomal Theory of Inheritance

Proposed by Walter Sutton and Theodore Boveri in 1902.
According to this theory the genes are located on the chromosomes.
i) Genes are located on the chromosomes
ii) Chromosomes are also found in pairs.
Both chromosomes of a homologous pair segregate out into gametes during meiosis

Chromosomes Genes
1. Chromosomes occur in pairs Genes occur in pairs
2. They segregate at the time of They segregate at gamete formation and only one of
gamete formation such that only each pair is transmitted to a gamete.
one of each pair is transmitted to
a gamete.
3. Independent pairs segregate One pair segregates independently of another pair
independently of each other

ABO- blood grouping in humans.

ABO blood groups are controlled by gene ‘I’. Gene I has three alleles IA, IB and i.
IA and IB produce RBC surface antigens A and B, respectively, whereas i does not produce
any antigen.
IA and IB are dominant alleles whereas i is the recessive allele.
When IA and IB are present together, both express equally and produce the surface antigens
A and B
Allele from Allele from Genotype of Blood group of
Parent 1 parent 2 offspring offspring
A A AA A
I I I I
A B AB AB
I I I I
 A I A A
I I i
B A AB AB
I I I I
B B BB B
I I I I
B i B B
I I i
i i ii O

Chromosomal determination of sex

Chromosome is the main factor to determine the sex of an organism. There are two
types of chromosomes in an organism. They are autosomes and sex chromosomes.
i) Autosomes: The normal chromosomes which do not determine the sex are called
autosomes. These chromosomes determine the somatic characters of an individual.
ii) Sex chromosomes: The chromosomes which determine the sex of an organism, are
called sex chromosomes or allosomes. There are two types of sex chromosomes.
They are X-chromosomes and Y-chromosomes. These two chromosomes differ not
only in appearance but also in genetic constitution.
XX-XY type
Female have a pair of X Chromosomes (XX)
Male have one X chromosome and a morphologically distinct Y chromosomes (XY)
Females are homogametic as it produces only one type of gamete with X chromosomes.
Males are heterogametic because it produces two types of gametes- one with X
chromosomes and the other with Y chromosomes.
Other factors determine the sex
Environmental factors:
Temperature – Certain type of turtles temperature above 330C more number of male
progenies and below 280C female progenies are produced.
In certain species of lizards above 330C more number of female progenies and below 280C
male progenies are produced.
Morphology
Some species of snails change their sex morphologically.