HEREDITY CLASS X

CLASS X: BIOLOGY
Chapter: HEREDITY AND EVOLUTION : Ranjit Ransingh
1. What is heredity? How it gets transmitted?

The transmission of genetic characters / traits from the parents to their offspring is called heredity.
The hereditary information is transferred from parents to their offspring through the sex cells called gametes of the
parent. The chromosomes in these cells contain DNA which comprises of genes. Genes are the hereditary units.
Thus, gametes constitute the link between one generation and the next to pass on the parental characters/traits to
their offspring.
2. What is variation?
The difference in the characters/traits among the individuals of a species is called variation.
For example; if you will observe the earlobes of the students of a class, then you will find majority of the students
may have free earlobes but there will be some who will have attached earlobes. Thus attached earlobes among the
free earlobes are the variation.
3. What is variation the important?
The importance of variation is:
• It enables the organisms to adopt themselves in changing environment.
• Accumulation of positive variations increases the chances of survival.
• It provides the raw material for evolution and formation of new species.
Heredity and Variation in Asexual reproduction:
✓ Organisms produced by this method are almost exact copies of their parents.
✓ Heredity preserves the similarities among all the individuals belonging to a given line of descent.
✓ They exhibit a very little variation due to the inaccuracies in DNA copying, which are inheritable.
Heredity and Variation in Sexual reproduction:
✓ Organisms produced by this method are not the exact copies of their parents.
✓ Offspring show variation from their parents due to crossing over and exchange of gene segments.
✓ Due to fertilisation and genetic recombination of parental genes the offspring produced show a lot of
variation from their parents and these changes are inheritable.
4. What is a chromosome?
A chromosome is a thread like structure found in the nucleus of a cell. It is formed of DNA which in turn made up off
genes. The number of chromosomes is fixed for a species.
For example; no. of chromosomes present in human: 23 pairs or 46 chromosomes.
5. What is a gene?
A gene is a unit of DNA present in chromosome which governs the synthesis of one protein that controls a specific
characteristic/ trait of an organism.
Genes are actually the units of heredity which transfer characteristics from parents to their offspring during
reproduction.
There are two types of genes (one from father, and one from mother) to control the same characteristics of an
organism. for example, if height is the characteristic, then, the gene combination could be TT/Tt or tt.
6. What is a dominant gene?

The gene which decides the appearance of a trait in an organism even in the presence of another alternative gene is
known as a dominant gene. A dominant gene is represented by a capital letter. for example, capital letter “T”
represents the character tallness. If an organism, with a gene combination of ‘Tt’ then also it will be tall, because ‘T’
is a dominant over ‘t’.
7. What is a recessive gene?

The gene which can decide the appearance of a trait in an organism only in the presence of another identical gene is
called a recessive gene. The recessive gene is represented by a corresponding small letter of the dominant character.
For example, small letter ‘t’ represents the dwarfness.
8. What is a genotype?
Genotype is the description of genes present in an organism. It shows the genetic constitution of an organism which
is expressed by a pair of letter such as TT, Tt or tt. Here T and t are the different forms of the same gene which is
expressing the height of the organism.
9. What is phenotype?
The characteristic/ trait which is visible in an organism is called its phenotype. This is its physical characteristic which
is determined by its genotype. For example, genotype ‘TT’ or ‘Tt’ results in a tall phenotype and the genotype ‘tt’
results in a dwarf phenotype.
F1 Generation (First Filial Generation) :
When two parents cross (breed) to produce progeny (offspring) then their progeny is called F1 generation.
F2 Generation;
When the first generation progeny cross (breed) among themselves to produce second generation progeny, then the
progeny is called F2 generation.
10. Mendel’s Laws of Heredity:
Gregor Johann Mendel, An Austrian biologist was the first scientist to blend the knowledge of science and
mathematics to develop laws of inheritance which transfer of characteristics from parents to progeny.
11. Why did Mendel choose pea plants for studying the inheritances?
Rationale behind choosing pea plants for the study of heredity-
✓ Pea plants had a number of clear cut differences like Tallness- dwarfness, Round-Yellow and Wrinkle-Green
seeds, Violet-White flowers etc.
✓ They have large sized flower for study.
✓ Plants are easy to grow and self-pollinating.
✓ As these plants have shorter life span so many generations of pea plants can be grown for study in a
comparatively shorter period of time.
12. What is a hybrid? Describe Monohybrid and Dihybrid cross in a pea plant.
A new form of plant resulting from a cross/ breed of different varieties of a plant is called a hybrid.
MONOHYBRID CROSS: A pair of alternative character
taken into consideration
Mendel first crossed pure breed of a tall pea plant (TT)
with a pure breed of dwarf pea plant (tt).
.
DIHYBRID CROSS: Two pair of characters are taken for the cross
In Mendel’s Dihybrid cross, a parent having pure Round-green (RRyy) seeds crossed with parent having pure wrinkle-
yellow (rrYY) seeds.
Parental Cross:
13. Allele?
It is an alternative of a gene occupying the same position on a chromosome and affecting the same characteristic but
in two alternative ways.
Eg.: Free and attached earlobes are the alleles for earlobes.
Expressing allele of a gene:
a) Homozygous dominant is expressed as capital letters eg. Tallness (TT)
b) Homozygous recessive is expressed as corresponding small letters eg. (tt)
c) Heterozygous is expressed in both capital and small letters eg.: hybrid tall (Tt)
14. Determination of Human Blood Groups:
In human, there are four types of blood groups A, B, O and AB. The Genes that these characters are expressed by the
symbols IA, IB and IO. Both the genes IA and IB are dominant over the gene IO. The genes IA and IB, show no dominance
over each other, therefore called Co-dominance.
Blood Group: The possible Allele
A: IA IA (Homozygous) and IA IO (Heterozygous)
B: IB IB (Homozygous) and IB IO (Heterozygous)
AB: IA IB (Heterozygous)
O: IO IO (Homozygous)
15. Determination of sex of a baby
Human beings have 23 pairs of chromosomes: 22 pair of autosomes and 1 pair of sex chromosomes.
Human male has 22 pairs of autosomes and 1 pair of sex chromosomes i.e. XY
Male gametes: (22+X) and (22+Y)
Human female has 22 pairs of autosomes and 1 pair of sex chromosomes i.e. XX
Female gametes: (22+X) and (22+X)
If the fertilised egg or zygote is having the chromosome combination:
i) (22+X) x (22+Y) = 22 pairs of autosomes and XY then it is a Boy
ii) (22+X) x (22+X) = 22 pairs of autosomes and XX then it is a Girl.
16. What is an acquired trait?
A trait or characteristic of an organism which is ‘not inherited’ but develops in response to the environment is called
an acquired trait.
The acquired traits of organisms can’t be passed on to their future generation.
• The ‘low weight’ of beetles that live in an environment with insufficient food can give birth to beetles which
can gain proper weight if they get sufficient food.
• A cut-tail mouse can give birth to a tailed mouse.
• Women pierce their earlobes to wear ornaments do not pass to their next generation.
17. What is an inherited trait?
A trait of an organism which is caused by a change in its genes/ DNA is called an inherited trait because it passes on
to their offspring.
In other words; inherited traits are those characteristics which we receive from our parents.
Examples: straight hair/curly hair; brown hair/black hair; black eyes/blue eyes; snub nose/thin nose; cleft
chin/pointed chin etc.

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CLASS X: BIOLOGY

Chapter: HEREDITY AND EVOLUTION : Ranjit Ransingh

1. What is heredity? How it gets transmitted?

6. What is a dominant gene?

7. What is a recessive gene?

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