HEREDITY

The passage or transmission of characters from one generation to another generation Is known as
heredity or inheritance.

All characters present in progeny are not similar to their parents. They show variation in
characteristics so variations are the differences in the characters among the different individuals of
a species. This inheritance of characters may take place during sexual or asexual reproduction.

Accumulation of variation during reproduction:

• When the new generation reproduces, the second generation produced will have variations
that they inherit from the first generation as well as the new created differences.
• During asexual reproduction in bacterium, the new individual bacteria generated are very
similar with minor differences that occur due to the small inaccuracies during DNA
copying.
• In sexual reproduction, as two parents are involved, the chances of diversity generated will
be even greater.
• Depending on the nature of variation, different individuals will have different advantages.

Variation:

• The differences in the character or traits between the parent and the offspring is called
variation.
• Types of variation:
1. Somatic variation: variation in the body cell. It is neither inherited nor
transmitted. It is also known as acquired traits.
Ex: variation of colour of fur in dogs,
2. Gametic variation: variation in the gamete cells or reproductive/sex cells. They
are inherited as well as transmitted to the next generation. It is also known as
inherited traits.
Ex: height, skin colour, eye colour
• Variation in asexual reproduction is fewer and occurs due to the small inaccuracies in DNA
copying (mutation). Variation in sexual reproduction is large in number and occurs due to
crossing over, separation of chromosomes, chromosomes.
• The main advantage of variation to a species is that it increases its chance of survival in the
changing environment.
• It also leads to evolution.

Inheritance of traits:

• The traits or characters which are passed on from parents to their offspring’s generation
to generation are controlled by genes.
• A section of DNA that provides information for a particular protein is called gene for
that protein.
• Due to the differences in the genetic arrangement, human population shows a great
variation in the expression of various traits. For example: height, skin colour, eye colour,
shape of nose, free earlobes, blood groups etc

Some important terms used in heredity:

 1. Chromosomes: these are long thread-like structures present in the nucleus of a cell which
contain hereditary information of the cell in the form of genes. It appears in cell division.
Before cell division, it is in the form of chromatin and during cell division, they condense to
from chromosomes.
2. DNA(Deoxyribo nucleic acid): it is a chemical in the chromosome which carries traits or
characters in a coded form.
3. Gene: it is a functional unit of heredity. It is present on chromosomes of the cell nucleus. It
is a piece of DNA that codes for polynucleotide(protein). It determines a particular
character of the organism.
4. Character: the feature or characteristics of an individual like height, colour, shape etc is
known as it’s character.
5. Contrasting characters: pair of visible characters such as tall and dwarf, white and violet
flower, round and wrinkled seed etc
6. Trait: character which is normally inherited and has its detectable variant too are called
traits.
7. Allele: one of the different forms of a particular gene occupying the same position on a
chromosome. It is a result of mutation.
8. Hybrid: an individual has two different alleles for the same trait.
9. Dominant allele/trait: an allele whose phenotype (physical character) will be expressed in
the presence of another allele of that gene. It is always represented by a capital letter.
10. Recessive allele/trait: an allele which gets masked in the presence of dominant allele and
can only affect the phenotype in the absence of dominant allele are called recessive allele. It
is always represented by a small letter.
11. Genotype: genetic composition of an individual for a particular allele is called genotype.
12. Phenotype: the expression off the genotype which an observable characteristic is called
phenotype. It is the external appearance of the organism.
13. Monohybrid cross: a hybridization cross in which inheritance of only one pair of
contrasting characters is studied.
14. Dihybrid cross: a cross in which inheritance of two pairs of contrasting characters is
studied.
15. Homozygous: a condition in which an individual possesses a pair of identical genes
controlling a given character and will bear the same character i.e the condition in which
both genes are of same type. Ex: tall(TT) x dwarf(tt)
16. Heterozygous: a condition in which an individual has a pair of contrasting genes for one
character and will not show the true breed for this character. Ex: tall(Tt)- T(tall) is expressed
but t(dwarf) is masked.
17. Progeny: the offspring of a particular generation are called progeny.
18. Gametes: the reproductive cells which contain only one set of dissimilar chromosomes
(haploid).

Mendell contribution towards inheritance of traits:

The rules of inheritance of traits say “during sexual reproduction, both father and mother will
contribute equal amount of genetic material to their child. So each trait can be influenced by both
paternal and maternal DNA and thus each trait will be of two versions in the child.

Gregor Johann Mendell is the geneticist who is also known as the father of genetics and has
proposed some basic laws of inheritance. Mendel started his experiment on the garden pea plant
(Pisum sativum) which forms the foundation of modern genetics.
Mendel choose pea plant for his experiments because of the following features of the pea plant.
(a) availability of detectable contrasting traits of several characters. (Mendel used seven different
contrasting characters in garden pea.)
(b) Short lifespan of the plant (grows faster)
(c) Easily distinguishable characters
(d) Large number of seeds produced
(e) Normally, it allows self-fertilization but cross fertilization can also be carried out.

(OR)

The reasons why Mendel chose garden pea plants for his experiments:

• They are easy to cultivate.

• Their life cycle is quite short.
• The flowers of the pea plant are bisexual. Besides performing self-pollination, these plants
can undergo cross-pollination if it is performed on them.
• The true-breeding or pure plants can be easily obtained through self-pollination.
• Their characteristics can be distinguished properly without any difficulty. This means that
the traits in this plant can be easily observed (for example; tall versus dwarf plant).
• These plants possess large flowers. Therefore, anthers (male) can be easily removed to
make this flower cross with the pollen from another flower.

Mendell’s experiment (monohybrid cross): The cross between two pea plants with one pair of
contrasting characters is called monohybrid cross. This was the cross in which Mendel showed
dominant and recessive characters by crossing between a tall and a short pea plant.

• Mendell took pea plants with different characters such as height

(tall and short plants).
• The progeny produced from them is known as F1 generation
where all are tall.
• Mendell then allowed F1 progeny plants to undergo self-
pollination.
• In F2 generation, he found three-quarter were tall and one
quarter of them were short.
This observation indicated that both the traits were inheritent in the F2
generation but only the tallest traits were expressed in F1 generation

Phenotypic ratio- 3:1 and Genotypic ratio- 1:2:1

 Dihybrid cross: a cross between two plants having two pairs of contrasting characters is called
dihybrid cross. Mendel took pea plant with two contrasting characters i.e., one with green round
seed and the other one with yellow wrinkled seed.
• When the F1 progeny was obtained, they had round and
yellow seeds, thus establishing that round and yellow are
the dominant traits.
• Then mendel allowed F1 progeny to be self-crossed to
obtain F2 progeny. He found that seeds were round-
yellow, round-green, wrinkled-yellow, and some were
wrinkled green.
• The
so ratio of plants with above characteristics was 9:3:3:1
the traitd
(phenotype)
• In F2 all the four characters were assorted out
independent of the others. So he concluded that a pair of
contrasting characters behaves independently of other
pair. Ex: seed colour is independent of seed shape.

How do traits get expressed?:

• Cellular DNA is the source of information for making proteins in the cell.
• A section of DNA that provides information for a particular protein is called a gene for that
protein.
• For example, plant height depends on the amount of particular plant hormone and the amount of
that hormone made will depend on the efficiency of the process of making it. Consider an
enzyme(protein) which is important for this process, if this enzyme works efficiently, then lot of
hormones will be made that makes the plant taller. If the gene for that enzyme has an alteration,
then the enzyme will be less efficient and hence the amount of hormone produced will be less,
resulting in a sort height plant.
So the traits in plants, animals or human being are transmitted and controlled through genes from
parents by the process of sexual reproduction.

The mechanism of inheritance:

• Both parents have to determine the trait in a progeny by contributing a copy of the same
gene.
• Each progeny must have two sets of all genes, one inherited from each parent. So, each
germ cell must have only one set of genes for different traits.
• Each set of gene is present as separate independent pieces called chromosomes. So, each
cell of the body will have two copies of each chromosome, one inherited from male parent
and the other from female parent.
• When two germ cells(haploid) combine, they will restore the normal number of
chromosomes in the progeny(diploid). This ensures the stability of DNA of the species.

Sex determination:

The process by which sex of a new born individual can be determined is called sex determination.
Different species use different strategies for their sex determination. In some species, the
environmental factors are important in determining the sex of the new born whereas in others, it is
genetically determined. Ex: (i) in reptiles, temperature at which fertilized eggs are kept determines
the developing animal will be a male or a female. Some animals like snails, can change sex in
different conditions indicating that their sex is not genetically determined. (ii) in humans, sex of
the individual is determined genetically i.e. from the genes inherited by their parents will decide
the sex of the offsprimg.

Sex determination in human being:

• Humans have 23 pairs of chromosomes, out of which 22 pairs are somatic

chromosomes/autosomes which do not play any role in sex determination whereas 1 pair
of chromosomes are called sex chromosome which helps to determine the sex of the child.
• Human females have a perfect pair of sex chromosomes represented by XX(homogamatic).
• On the other hand, human male has odd pair of sex chromosome. One of which which has
a normal sized X chromosome but a short size Y, which together are represented as
XY(heterogametic). The gametes formed from heterogametic males that are of two types,
half with X chromosomes and the other half with Y chromosomes.
• Sex of the offspring will depend on the the fertilization. There are two possibilities as
shown.
Q)

A) (ii) DNA copying also known as DNA replication is a process of producing two identical copies
of DNA molecule during cell division. It is important because it generates variation during sexual
reproduction which leads to evolution. It also helps in transfer of information or character from
parents to offsprings.

DNA copying is a biochemical reaction and no biochemical reaction is accurate completely. So

some errors are expected to occur during DNA copying which results in variation. Because of this
variation, the daughter cells are similar but not completely identical to the parent.

Blood grouping:

Blood type is inherited through an inheritance pattern called co-dominance.

• In humans, RBC’s have proteins with sugar attached to the surface. These sugars act as
antigens. Antigens are the structures that activate the immune system. Those antigens come
in two forms:
(a) Type A antigens
(b) Type B antigens
• People having type A blood make A antigens and have anti-B antibodies in the plasma.
• Similarly, people who have type B blood make B antigens and have anti-A antibodies in the
plasma.
• People who have type AB blood make both types of antigens but no antibodies.
• People who have type O blood have no Antigens and both A and B antibodies in their
plasma.
• The genes I regulates the A,B,O blood types in humans. They are IA, IB, and i respectively, i
being the recessive and producing no antigens.
Blood type Genotype

A IAIA

A IAi

B I BI B

B I Bi

AB IAIB

O ii

Mendel’s Laws of inheritance:

1) Law of dominance: when parents with pure or contrasting traits are crossed together, only
one form of trait appears in next generation. The hybrid offspring will exhibit only
dominant trait in F1 progeny.
2) Law of segregation/Law of purity of gametes: because gametes carry only a recessive or
dominant allele, not both
3) Law of independent assortment: during a dihybrid cross, an assortment of each pair of trait
is independent of the other.