Heredity Notes
Heredity Notes
Heredity Notes
Genetics deals with the study of heredity and the variation of inherited
characteristics. The father of genetics is Gregor Mendel, a late 19th-century
scientist and Augustinian friar. Mendel studied “trait inheritance”, patterns in the
way traits are handed down from parents to offspring. He observed that
organisms (pea plants) inherit traits by way of discrete “units of inheritance”. This
term, still used today, is a somewhat ambiguous definition of what is referred to as
a gene.
Monohybrid Cross
Cross between two pea plants with one pair of contrasting characters is called a
monohybrid cross. Example : Cross between a tall and a dwarf plant (short).
Observations of Monohybrid Cross
(i) All F1 progeny were tall, no medium height plant. (Half way characteristic)
(ii) F2 progeny 1⁄4 were short, 3⁄4 were tall.
(iii) Phenotypic ratio F2 – 3 : 1 (3 tall : 1 short)
Genotypic ratio F2 – 1 : 2 : 1 – (TT : Tt : tt)
Conclusions
1. TT and Tt both are tall plants while tt is a short plant.
2. A single copy of T is enough to make the plant tall, while both copies have to be
‘t’ for the plant to be short.
3. Characters/traits like ‘T’ are called dominant trait (because it express itself) and
‘t’ are recessive trait (because it remains suppressed).
Dihybrid Cross
A cross between two plants having two pairs of contrasting characters is called
dihybrid cross.
Observations
(i) When RRyy was crossed with rrYY in F1 generation all were Rr Yy round and
yellow seeds.
(ii) Self pollination of F1 plants gave parental phenotype and two
mixtures (recombinants round yellow and wrinkled green) seeds plants in the ratio
of 9 : 3 : 3 : 1.
Conclusions
1. Round and yellow seeds are Dominant characters.
2. Occurrence of new phenotype combinations show that genes for round and
yellow seeds are inherited independently of each other.
Principle of Dominance
• In heterozygous organisms, only one out of the two alleles expresses itself
(Dominant trait) while the other remains hidden (recessive trait)
• Example: In Tt (heterozygous tall plant), T is dominant and t is recessive
Principle of Segregation
• Each allele retains its distinct identity, even though they remain together
in an individual; they segregate only during gamete formation
• Example: In a hybrid tall plant Tt, ‘T’ & ‘t’ segregate only during gamete
formation
Principle of Independent Assortment
• During gamete formation, segregation of alleles of one pair is
independent of the segregation of alleles of the other pair
• Example: Self pollination of hybrid plants with Round & Yellow seeds
• In this experiment, Mendel took 2 contrasting characters- colour of seed and
shape of seed of the pea plant. It was observed that colour & shape of the
seeds were independent of each other. Though we started with Round-
Yellow & Green-Wrinkled combinations, we obtained even Round-Green and
Yellow-Wrinkled combinations in F2 generation. This shows that the alleles
R,r and Y,y segregate independently.
Sex Determination
Factors responsible for Sex Determination are:
Some rely entirely on environmental cues. Thus, in some animals like a few reptiles like turtles, the
temperature at which fertilised eggs are kept determines whether the animals developing in the eggs
will be male or female. In other animals, such as snails, individuals can change sex, indicating that sex is
not genetically determined.
Genetic :In some animals like humans gender or individual is determined by a pair
of chromosomes called sex chromosome.
XX – Female
XY – Male
Sex Chromosomes : 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
Test-cross
Test-cross is an experiment in which an organism showing dominance for a specific trait has to be
tested for its genotype. When an organism shows a dominant character, it could be homozygous or
heterozygous for that character. Using the homozyous recessive organism, the genotype of the
organism can be tested.
Q. To identify the genotype of yellow-seeded pea plants as either homozygous dominant (YY) or
heterozygous (Yy), you could do a test cross with plants of genotype _______.
A. y B. Y C. yy D. YY E. Yy