Differences and Examples

Non-Mendelian inheritance is a general term that refers to any pattern of inheritance in which
traits do not segregate in accordance with Mendel’s laws. These laws describe the inheritance
of traits linked to single genes on chromosomes in the nucleus.
Instructions: What are the similarities and differences between each of these forms of
inheritance? What are examples of each type? How will you remember?
Differences and Examples

1. Incomplete inheritance.
● Sometimes in a heterozygote dominant allele does not completely mask the
phenotypic expression of the recessive allele and there occurs an intermediate
phenotype in the heterozygote. This is called incomplete dominance.
● With co-dominant alleles, both traits are expressed at the same time. With
incomplete inheritance, the same thing occurs but the traits are blended together
rather than occurring in discrete patches.
● It thus refers to the condition in heterozygotes where the phenotype is
intermediate between the two homozygotes.
● Example: In some plants, the cross of red and white produces pink-flowered
progeny (Four-o’clock plants (Mirabilis jalapa) or snapdragons (Antirrhinum
majus).
2. Co-dominance
● Co-dominance is believed to be a violation of the Law of Dominance.
● When the alleles for a particular trait are co-dominant, they are both expressed
equally rather than a dominant allele taking complete control over a recessive
allele.
● This means that when an organism has two different alleles (i.e., is a
heterozygote), it will express both at the same time.
● Example: Speckled flowers where the plant breeder has bred two different colors
of the flower together, resulting in a speckled hybrid that has patches of color
from both parents.
3. Multiple Alleles
● Although individual humans (and all diploid organisms) can only have two alleles
for a given gene, multiple alleles may exist at a population level, and different
individuals in the population may have different pairs of these alleles.
● Example: A gene that specifies coat color in rabbits, called the C gene. The C
gene comes in four common alleles: C, cch, ch, and c: (Multiple alleles make for
many possible dominance relationships.)
4. Polygenic Traits
● Some traits are controlled by many genes, such as height, IQ, skin color, eye
color, etc.
● A polygenic trait is one whose phenotype is influenced by more than one gene.
● Often the genes are large in quantity but small in effect.
● Example: Skin Color in Man
● Davenport (1913) in Jamaica found that two pairs of genes, A-a and B-b cause
the difference in skin pigmentation between negro and Caucasian people. These
genes were found to affect the character in an additive fashion.
● Thus, a true negro has four dominant genes, AABB, and a white has four
recessive genes aabb. The F1 offspring of mating of aabb with AABB, are all
AaBb and have an intermediate skin color termed mulatto. Mating of two such
mulattoes produces a wide variety of skin colors in the offspring, ranging from
skins as dark as the original negro parent to as white as the original white parent.
5. Sex-linked Inheritance
● The inheritance of a trait (phenotype) that is determined by a gene located on
one of the sex chromosomes.
● This type of inheritance has certain unique characteristics, which include the
following: (1) There is no male-to-male (father-to-son) transmission, since sons
will, by definition, inherit the Y rather than the X chromosome. (2) The carrier
female (heterozygote) has a 50 percent chance of passing the mutant gene to
each of her children; sons who inherit the mutant gene will be hemizygotes and
will manifest the trait, while daughters who receive the mutant gene will be
unaffected carriers. (3) Males with the trait will pass the gene on to all of their
daughters, who will be carriers. (4) Most sex-linked traits are recessively
inherited, so heterozygous females generally do not display the trait.
● Example:
Similarities
The similarities between codominance and incomplete inheritance are:
● Both parental alleles inherited are dominant.
● An allelic or intragenic gene interaction causes codominance and incomplete
inheritance.
The similarity between multiple alleles and polygenic traits is:
● More than two factors are involved in the determination of a trait in multiple alleles and
polygenic traits.
The similarity between polygenic traits and incomplete dominance is:
● Polygenic inheritance is a type of incomplete dominance inheritance, where the
expressed phenotypes are a mixture of inherited traits.
The similarity between codominance and multiple alleles is:
● The human ABO blood group system has multiple alleles, and it shows codominance.
How will I remember?

To remember these non-mendelian genetics, I have created this summary of their
characteristics:
Remember that in incomplete dominance, the two traits blend; in co-dominance, the two traits
are equally expressed; in multiple alleles, there are three or more alleles for a particular gene; in
polygenic traits, more than one gene is required to determine a trait; and in sex-linked traits, the
traits can be dominant or recessive, but they always appear on the X-chromosome.

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Non-Mendelian inheritance is a general term that refers to any pattern of inheritance in which

Differences and Examples

How will I remember?

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