MENDELIAN

PATTERNS OF
INHERITANCE
 Summary of Important Terms in

• Gene – a genetic
Genetics
factor (region of DNA)
that helps determine a characteristic
• Allele – one of two or more forms
of a gene
• Locus – specific place on a
chromosome occupied by an allele
• Homozygote - an individual organism possessing
two of the same alleles at a locus.
• Heterozygote - an individual organism possessing
two different alleles at a locus.
• Genotype - set of alleles
possessed by an individual
organism
• Phenotype - the appearance or
manifestation of a character
• Character/Characteristic - an
attribute or feature
 Blending Hypothesis of
Inheritance
• Blending hypothesis (1800s)
• Early explanation of how offspring inherit trait from
both parents
• Example: if a red flower plant crossed with a yellow
flower, the offspring would be orange
• Later discarded
 GREGOR MENDEL
• Johann Gregor Mendel set the
framework for the study of
genetics.
• Used statistics to analyze data
• Studied 7 characteristics in pea
plants
True breeding plants
A true plant will show the same physical
appearance generation after generation after
self-fertilization.

Cross fertilization
The sperm from the pollen of one true flower
fertilizes the eggs in the flower of a different
plant.
 MENDEL’S EXPERIMENTS
• He cross-fertilized 2 true-breeding plants each
with contrasting traits (i.e. white and purple
flowers)
• What color of flowers do you think the offspring
plants were?
 Garden Peas
(Pisum sativum)

•Experimenting with thousands of

garden peas, Mendel uncovered the
fundamentals of genetics.
•This plant was his choice as a model
organism – an organism used for
research that applies to other
organisms.
• Mendel identified seven pea plant
characteristics.
• Each characteristics has two variants.
• Parental Generation (P) – the first-generation of plants used to cross
• First-generation offspring (F1) – babies of P
• Second-generation offspring (F2) – babies of F1
 Flower Color
Mendel’s process for performing crosses included examining
flower color.

• F1 – all plants VIOLET;

• Question: is white transmitted from the white P parent to
F1 or not
• Answer: allow F1 self-crossing (!) and check F2 plants
• Result: some F2 plants have WHITE flowers
• Conclusion: white is transmitted to F1 plants but it is not
showing
 Violet vs. White
• Traits that can mask/hide other traits = dominant
• Traits that can become latent (or hidden) = recessive

•Each trait is related to an heritable factor inside of our

body (i.e. DNA)
•Today heritable factors are known as GENES
•And their variants known as ALLELE
Law of pair of factors: for each feature we inherit two heritable
factors (alleles), one from each parent.
There are only 3 Possibilities:
• Dominant, dominant
• Dominant, recessive
• Recessive, recessive

Using standardized notations:

Uppercase letter - dominant allele - A
Lowercase letter - recessive allele - a
• Dominant, dominant - AA
• Dominant, recessive - Aa
• Recessive, recessive - aa
GENOTYPE

PHENOTYP
E
• Genotype = the alleles/heritable factors in your
DNA
• Homozygous dominant: VV
• Heterozygous: Vv
• Homozygous recessive: vv

• Phenotype = the observable features/traits in

your body
• Dominant feature
• recessive feature
Dominant and Recessive Traits in Humans
 Y – yellow (dominant allele
y – green (recessive allele)

• Phenotypes are physical expressions of traits that are

transmitted by alleles.
• Capital letters represent dominant alleles and lowercase letters
represent recessive alleles.
• The phenotypic ratios are the ratios of visible
characteristics.
• The genotypic ratios are the ratios of gene combinations
in the offspring, and these are not always distinguishable
in the phenotypes.

F2 generation:

Phenotypic ratio – 3:1

Genotypic ration – 1:2:1
 LAW OF
DOMINANCE
• The presence of a dominant allele will always mask the
presence of a recessive allele.

Genotype Phenotype

AA Dominant

Aa Dominant

aa Recessive
Mendel’s law of dominance states that:

“When parents with pure, contrasting traits are crossed

together, only one form of trait appears in the next
generation. The hybrid offsprings will exhibit only the
dominant trait in the phenotype.”
G – is a dominant trait
- codes for green seed pod
 LAW OF
SEGREGATION
Mendel’s law of segregation states that:

“During the formation of gamete, each gene

separates from each other so that each gamete
carries only one allele for each gene.”
This law explains that the pair of alleles segregate from
each other during meiosis cell division (gamete
formation) so that only one allele will be present in each
gamete.
 Monohybrid Cross
• Monohybrid cross – a cross between two organisms that
involves one gene
• Punnett square – used to show probabilities of inheritance for
traits
• How to build a Punnett square:
 Separate the alleles of each parent into different
gametes: one allele per gamete
 Add the gametes on the side and top of the square
 Each allele goes in the squares:
• top alleles in each column
• side allele in each row A a

a Aa aa
Cross between Aa x
aa
a Aa aa
• This Punnett square shows the cross
between plants with yellow seeds and green
seeds.
• The cross between the true-breeding P
plants produces F1 heterozygotes that can be
self-fertilized.
• The self-cross of the F1 generation can be
analyzed with a Punnett square to predict
the genotypes of the F2 generation.
• Given an inheritance pattern of dominant–
recessive, the genotypic and phenotypic
ratios can then be determined.

• Chance to inherit yellow color:

• -in F1 generation: 100%
 Practice Problem
1. In dogs, a dominant gene (W) produces wire-
haired texture. The recessive gene (w) produces
smooth hair. A homozygous dominant male is
mated to a female with smooth hair. What
genotypes and phenotypes are expected in the F1
generation, and in what ratios?
 Practice Problem
W W

w Ww Ww
Genotype: 100% Ww
Phenotype: 100% wire-
w Ww Ww haired
 Practice Problem
2. Normal pigmentation in humans is a result of a
dominant allele (A), while albinism results from the
recessive allele (a). Two heterozygous individuals
plan to have a child. What are the genotypes of the
F1 generation? What is the genotypic ratio? What is
the chance that the child will be albino?
 Practice Problem
A a

A AA Aa
Genotype: AA, Aa, aa
Genotypic ratio: 1:2:1
a Aa aa 25% of the children is
albino
 REVIEW

The law of segregation lets us predict how a single

feature associated with a single gene is inherited.
Gregor Mendel found that different genes were
inherited independently of one another, following
what's called the law of independent assortment.
 LAW OF
INDEPENDENT
ASSORTMENT
Mendel's law of independent assortment states that:

“Alleles of two (or more) different genes get sorted into

gametes independently of one another. In other words,
the allele a gamete receives for one gene does not
influence the allele received for another gene.”
Genes will segregate independently of each other into
gametes.
This can be shown by a dihybrid cross.
The cellular basis explanation for this law is the
random assortment of the chromosomes in Metaphase-
I.
Let's look at a concrete example of the law of
independent assortment. Imagine that we cross two
pure-breeding pea plants: one with yellow, round
seeds (YYRR) and one with green, wrinkled seeds
(yyrr). Because each parent is homozygous, the law of
segregation tells us that the gametes made by the
wrinkled, green plant all are ry, and the gametes made
by the round, yellow plant are all RY. That gives us F1
offspring that are all RrYy.
The allele specifying yellow seed color is dominant to
the allele specifying green seed color, and the allele
specifying round shape is dominant to the allele
specifying wrinkled shape, as shown by the capital and
lowercase letters. This means that the F1 plants are all
yellow and round. Because they are heterozygous for
two genes, the F1 plants are called dihybrids (di- =
two, -hybrid = heterozygous).
A cross between two dihybrids (or, equivalently, self-
fertilization of a dihybrid) is known as a dihybrid
cross. When Mendel did this cross and looked at the
offspring, he found that there were four different
categories of pea seeds: yellow and round, yellow and
wrinkled, green and round, and green and wrinkled.
These phenotypic categories (categories defined by
observable traits) appeared in a ratio of
approximately 9:3:3:1.
 Dihybrid Cross
• Dihybrid cross – a cross between two organisms that
differ in two characteristics
• More specifically a cross between individuals:
1. that are homozygous for different alleles at the
two loci
(AA BB X aa bb)
2. that are both heterozygous at two loci
(Aa Bb X Aa Bb)
Punnett square for dihybrid cross:
- remember to separate alleles (law of segregation)
- each gamete will have two alleles
- no alleles of the same gene should be in the same
gamete
- Gametes from a parent with the genotype YyRr:
- YR, Yr, yR, yr
 Segregation vs Independent Assortment

• The law of segregation covers how alleles of the same

gene assort into different gametes.
• The law of independent assortment covers how the
alleles of different genes assort into gametes
 PRACTICE EXERCISES

In humans, free earlobes (E) are dominant, and attached

earlobes (e) are recessive. You want to determine the
possible earlobe types of the offspring when crossing two
individuals.
•Parent 1 (F): Heterozygous for free earlobes (Ee).
•Parent 2 (A): Homozygous for attached earlobes (ee).

• What is the chance of the children having free earlobes?

How about attached earlobes?
 PRACTICE EXERCISES

In mice, black fur color (B) is dominant over white fur color
(b). You want to determine the possible fur colors of the
offspring when crossing two mice.
•Parent 1 (M1): Heterozygous for black fur (Bb).
•Parent 2 (M2): Homozygous for black fur (BB).

•Find the possible genotypes and phenotypes of the

offspring.
 PRACTICE EXERCISES

A heterozygous rabbit is crossed with a homozygous

dominant rabbit. What are the results? (B = gray b =
white).
 PRACTICE EXERCISES

In cats having hair is dominant (H) over not having hair

(h). If a male cat that is heterozygous for hair is crossed
with a hairless cat what are the genotypes and
phenotypes that their offspring may have?
 PRACTICE EXERCISES

In pea plants, round peas are dominant and wrinkled

peas are recessive. Cross a heterozygous parent with a
homozygous round pea plant.
 PRACTICE EXERCISES

In pea plants, green pods are dominant over yellow

pods. Cross a plant with yellow pods with a plant that is
heterozygous for green pods.
 PRACTICE EXERCISES

Tongue rolling is a dominant trait. Can a husband and

wife that are not able to roll their tongues produce a
child that can roll his or her tongue? Show using the
Punnett square.
 PRACTICE EXERCISES

A couple is about to have a baby, the father is

heterozygous for eye color and the mother is
homozygous recessive for eye color. What is the
probability the baby will have brown eyes? (B = brown b
= blue)
 PRACTICE EXERCISES

What will be the F1 generation in a cross when round

and yellow seeded pea plants (YYRR) are crossed with
green and wrinkled (yyrr) seeded pea plant?
 PRACTICE EXERCISES

What will be the results when this F1 is crossed with

green and wrinkled seeded (yyrr) parents?
 PRACTICE EXERCISES

In watermelons, the alleles for green color (G) and short

shape (S) are dominant. Striped color and long shaped
are recessive. A plant that is striped and long is crossed
with a plant that is heterozygous for both traits. What
are the possible genotypes and phenotypes for the
offspring?
 PRACTICE EXERCISES

In rabbits, red eyes is dominant over black eyes, and

white fur is dominant over gray fur. A male rabbit with
red eyes and gray fur is crossed with a female rabbit
with black eyes and heterozygote for white fur. Find out
the different genotypes and phenotypes for this cross.