Heredity Notes

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Heredity and Evolution

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.

Accumulation of Variations during Reproduction


The variations appear during reproduction based on whether organisms multiply
Asexually or Sexually
1. Asexually
a) Variations are fewer
b) Occurs due to small in accuracies in DNA copying. (Mutation)
2. Sexually
a) Variations are large
b) Occurs due to crossing over, separation of chromosomes, mutations
Importance of Variation
(i) Depending upon the nature of variations different individuals would have
different kinds of advantage. Example, Bacteria that can withstand heat will survive
better in a heat wave.
(ii) Main advantage of variation to species is that it increases the chances of its
survival in a changing environment.
Free ear lobes and attached ear lobes are two variants found in
human populations.

Mendel and His Work on Inheritance


• Gregor Johann Mendel (1822 & 1884) : Started his experiments on plant
breeding and hybridisation. He proposed the laws of inheritance in living
organisms. Mendel was known as Father of Genetics.
• Plant selected by Mendel : Pisum sativum (garden pea). Mendel used
a number of contrasting characters for garden pea.

• Medel’s Experimental Material : He chose Garden Pea (Pisum sativum) as his


experiment material because of :
(i) Availability of detectable contrasting traits of several characters.
(ii) Short life span of the plant.
(iii) Normally allows self-fertilisation but cross-fertilisation can also
be carried out.
(iv) Large no. of seeds produced.
• Mendel’s Experiments : Mendel conducted a series of experiments in which
he crossed
the pollinated plants to study one character (at a time).

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.

How do these traits get expressed?


Cellular DNA (Information source)
↓ For synthesis of
Proteins (Enzyme)
↓ Works efficiently
More Hormone
↓ produced
Tallness of plant
Therefore, genes control characteristics/traits.
How do proteins control the characteristics?
Let us take the example of tallness as a characteristic. We know that plants have hormones that
can trigger growth. Plant height can thus depend on the amount of a particular plant hormone.
The amount of the plant hormone made will depend on the efficiency of the process for making
it. Consider now an enzyme that is important for this process. If this enzyme works efficiently, a
lot of hormone will be made, and the plant will be tall. If the gene for that enzyme has an
alteration that makes the enzyme less efficient, the amount of hormone will be less, and the
plant will be short. Thus, genes control characteristics, or traits

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

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