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The document provides an overview of heredity and genetics, detailing key concepts such as heredity, variation, genes, alleles, and the contributions of Gregor Mendel. It explains Mendel's observations in pea plants, the principles of monohybrid and dihybrid crosses, and the laws of dominance, segregation, and independent assortment. Additionally, it discusses sex determination in humans, highlighting the role of chromosomes in determining gender.

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2 views

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The document provides an overview of heredity and genetics, detailing key concepts such as heredity, variation, genes, alleles, and the contributions of Gregor Mendel. It explains Mendel's observations in pea plants, the principles of monohybrid and dihybrid crosses, and the laws of dominance, segregation, and independent assortment. Additionally, it discusses sex determination in humans, highlighting the role of chromosomes in determining gender.

Uploaded by

norano7775
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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CHAPTER:- HEREDITY NOTES

Genetics: Branch of science that deals with heredity and variation.


Heredity: It means the transmission of features/characters/traits from one
generation to the next generation.
Variation: The differences among the individuals of a species/population are called
variations.
Gregor Johann Mendel regarded as the ‘Father of Genetics’ performed his
experiments with garden peas (Pisum sativum)

The seven characteristics that Mendel observed in pea plants:


• Pea shape (round or wrinkled)
• Pea color (green or yellow)
• Pod shape (constricted or inflated)
• Pod color (green or yellow)
• Flower color (purple or white)
• Plant size (tall or dwarf)
• Position of flowers (axial or terminal)

Contrasting characters: A pair of visible charactes such as tall and dwarf, white and violet flowers, round
and wrinkled seeds, green and yellow seeds etc.
Chromosomes : These are the long threads present in the nucleus of every cell. Chromosomes are made-
up of DNA and protein. Each chromosome contains very long molecule of DNA.
Gene : It is the basic unit of inheritance by which characters are transferred from parents to their offspring.
Gene consists of a specific length of DNA on a chromosome. genes code for a specific protein or segment
of protein leading to a particular characteristic or function.
Allele: It is an alternative form of a gene occupying the same position on a chromosome and affecting the
same characters but in two alternative ways. An example of alleles for flower color in pea
plants are the dominant purple allele, and the recessive white allele.

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.

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.

Dominant trait: The character which expresses itself in a (F1) generation is dominant trait. Example :
Tallness is a dominant character in pea plant.

Recessive trait: The character which does not express itself but is present in a generation is recessive
trait. Ex. dwarfism in the pea plant.

Monohybrid Cross:
A cross between two types of plants of same species considering only the transmission of one character is
called monohybrid cross
For example, a cross between tall pea plants and dwarf pea plant that is considering only the height of the
parents
In this cross, Mendel showed inheritance of dominant and recessive characters
For F2 Generation
Genotypic ratio: TT:Tt:tt
1:2:1
Phenotypic ratio: Tall:Dwarf
3:1
Note:
Genotype : The genetic constitution of an organism. for example; A pure tall plant is expressed as TT
and hybrid tall as Tt.
Phenotype: The appearance of the organism, i.e., the way in which genotype is expressed.
e.g., Red colour may be controlled by a pair of genes RR. Now if genotype is RR phenotype will be red only
but if genotype is Rr then also phenotype will be red since R is a dominant gene.

Law of Dominance: When parents having pure contrasting characters are crossed then only one character
expresses itself in the F1 generation. This character is the dominant character and the character which
cannot express itself is called the recessive character.

Dihybrid cross: A cross between two parents taking into consideration alternative traits of two different
characters, e.g., A cross between two pea plants one having round, green seeds and the other having
wrinkled, yellow seeds.
F2 ratio : Phenotypic is 9 : 3 : 3 : 1 and Genotypic . ratio is very complex.

Round, yellow : 9
Round, green : 3
Wrinkled, yellow : 3
Wrinkled, green : 1

Law of segregation :
• It is the second law of inheritance.
• “During the formation of gamete, each allele of a gene separates from each other so
that each gamete carries only one allele for each gene.”

Law of Independent Assortment :


• It states that during a dihybrid cross (crossing of two pairs of traits), an assortment of each
pair of traits is independent of the other.

Sex determination: The process of determining the sex of an offspring is called sex
determination.

In human beings there are 23 pairs of chromosome. Out of these 22 chromosomes pairs are
called autosomes and the last pair of chromosome that help in deciding gender of that
individual is called sex chromosome.
XX – female
XY – male
It can be concluded that:
• There is a 50-50% chance of a boy or a girl.
• The sex of a child depend on the father because he produces different types of
gametes.

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