LITTLE ANGELS PUBLIC SCHOOL, MZN

HEREDITY AND EVOLUTION

th
CLASS-

Some important terms-

. Chromosomes are long thread-like structures present in the nucleus of a cell

which contain hereditary information of the cell in the form of genes.

. DNA is a chemical in the chromosome which carries the traits in a coded form.
Gene is the very specific segments of DNA . Each of your cells contains very long
stretches of DNA. This is heritable material that you get from each of your parents.

. The transmission of genes from parents to offspring is referred to as heredity.

Inheritance refers to the passing down of traits and variations from one
generation to the next.
In higher organisms, sexual reproduction is the primary mode of
reproduction. Two parents are involved in sexual reproduction
because gametes from two different individuals are fused. Due to this,
their genes become mixed up, resulting in many variants in their progeny. As a
result, offspring differ from their parents in appearance. This degree
of dissimilarity between the young ones and parents is called variation.

. 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.

. Dominant trait: The character which expresses itself in heterozygous condition

is dominant trait. Example : Tallness is a dominant character in pea plant.

. Recessive trait: The character which does not express itself in heterozygous
condition and can only express in homozygous condition. Example: dwarfism in
the pea plant.

. Homozygous: A condition in which both the genes of same type are present for
example; an organism has both the genes for tallness it is expressed as TT and
genes for dwarfness are written as tt.

. Heterozygous: A condition in which both the genes are of different types for
example; an organism has genes Tt it means it has a gene for tallness and the
other for dwarfness only tall character is expressed.

. Genotype: It is genetic make up of an individual for example; A pure tall plant is

expressed as TT and hybrid tall as Tt.
 . Phenotype: It is external appearance of the organism for example; a plant
having Tt composition will appear tall although it has gene for dwarfness.
. Homologous pair of characters 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.

. Monohybrid cross- A monohybrid cross is a genetic cross which occurs

between two individuals, focusing on the inheritance of one trait at one time.

. Dihybrid cross- A dihybrid cross is a genetic cross that occurs between two
individual, focusing on the inheritance of two independent traits at one time.

Mendels laws of inheritance.

Gregor Johann Mendel was a scientist who is recognized as the Father and Founder
of genetics . Mendel conducted many experiments on the pea plant (Pisum sativum)
between and . Genes had not been discovered at the time when Mendel
conducted his experiment to study inheritance, he used the term ‘factors’ instead of
genes and considered as carriers of heredity information. This factors are now known
as ‘genes’. He studied the results of the experiments and deducted many
observations. Thus, laws of inheritance or Mendel’s laws of inheritance came into
existence.

Why he selected pea plant?

He selected a pea plant for his experiments for the following reasons:

. The pea plant can be easily grown and maintained.

. They are naturally self-pollinating but can also be cross-pollinated.

. It is an annual plant, therefore, many generations can be studied within a

 short period of time.

. It has several contrasting characters.

The seven characters and fourteen traits of Mendel's pea plants

S.
Characteristics Dominant Recessive
No
. The length of the stem Tall Dwarf
The position of the
. Axial Terminal
flower
. The colour of the pod Green Yellow
. The shape of the pod Inflated Constricted
. The shape of the seed Round Wrinkled
. The colour of the flower Violet White
The colour of the
. Yellow Green
cotyledon

Mendel conducted main experiments to determine the laws of inheritance.

These experiments were:

. Monohybrid Cross

. Dihybrid Cross

Monohybrid cross
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 F progeny. Then he crossed F progeny and obtained both tall and short
plants in the ratio : . .
OBSERVATION-

 In the F generation, Mendel observed that all plants were tall. There were no
dwarf plants.

 In the F generation, Mendel observed that of the offsprings were tall

whereas was dwarf.

 Similar results were found when Mendel studied other characters.

 Mendel observed that in the F generation, the characters of only one parent
appeared whereas, in the F generation, the characters of the other parent
also appeared.

 The characters that appear in the F generation are called dominant traits and
those that appear for the first time in the F generation are called recessive
traits.

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 (F progeny) were round-yellow. This meant
that dominant traits were the round shape and yellow colour.

He then self-pollinated the F progeny and obtained different traits: round-

yellow, round-green, wrinkled-yellow, and wrinkled-green seeds in the ratio
: : : .
Mendel collected a total of F seeds and counted them shape wise and
colour wise. He got the following result-
 Round- yellow seeds 
 Round-green seeds 
 Wrinkled-yellow seeds 
 Wrinkled-green seeds 
Thus the phenotypic ratio of different type of seeds can be written as-
Round yellow : Round green : Wrinkled yellow : Wrinkled green
: : :
: : :
Mendel’s laws

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

. Law of Dominance

. Law of Segregation

. Law of Independent Assortment

Law of Dominance
This is also called 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 F generation are
called as dominant characters. The recessive characters appear in the F generation.

Law of Segregation
This law states that when two traits come together in one hybrid pair, the two
characters do not mix with each other and are independent of each other. Each
gamete receives one of the two alleles during meiosis of the chromosome.
Mendel’s law of segregations supports the phenotypic ratio of : i.e. the
homozygous dominant and heterozygous offsprings show dominant traits while the
homozygous recessive shows the recessive trait.

Law of independent assortment

The Law of Independent Assortment: The traits inherited through one gene will be
inherited independently of the traits inherited through another gene because the
genes reside on different chromosomes that are independently assorted into
daughter cells during meiosis.

ABO blood group system:The human blood group is divided into types such as:
A, B , AB and O. This blood group system is controlled by a gene which has three
different forms denoted by the symbol – IA, IB , i/ Io. However gene IA and IB both
are dominant over the gene i/Io and hence called Co-dominants. Blood depends
on presence of antigen and responding antibody. The antigen is present on the
surface of erythrocytes or RBC and the antibody present in plasma.

The O blood group called as universal donor because it doesn’t have any antigen
whereas AB blood group called as universal acceptor. The knowledge about blood
group is essential for transfusion of blood. A blood group person cannot donate
blood to B blood group person. Similarly AB blood group person cannot donate
blood to O blood group person. Blood transfusion can occur for A to A, B to B, AB to
AB and O to O.

GENOTYPE PHENOTYPE
IA IA A
B B
I I B
A
I i A
 IB i B
IA IB AB
ii O

SEX DETERMINATION
The process by which the sex of a person is determined is called sex
determination.
. Humans have pairs of chromosomes. Out of these pairs, pairs are
Autosomes and only one pair is the ‘Sex Chromosome’, which actively takes
part in the process of sex determination.
. Both males and females carry two sets of sex chromosome.
. Male has one X and one Y (XY) sex chromosome in which both are active
. Female has both X (XX) sex chromosome in which one is active.
. The XY sex-determination system is found in humans, mammals, in some
insects, and in few plant species.
. All children will inherit an X chromosome from their mother, despite
whether they are a boy or girl. Thus, the sex of the children will be
determined by the type of chromosome inherited from their father.
. A child who inherits Y chromosome will be a boy and who inherits X
chromosome will be a girl.

NOTE- In some of the animals, sex determination is also controlled by the

environmental factors.
For example- In some reptiles, the temperature at which the fertilized egg is
incubated before hatching, plays a important role in determining the sex of
the organism . In case of turtle ( Chrysema picta) , high incubation
temperature leads to the development of female offspring . On the other
hand , in the case of a lizard ( Agama agama) , high incubation temperature
results in male offspring .