Chapter 9 Heredity and Evolution

Heredity and Inherited Traits: Mendel’s Experiment; Sex determination.

Heredity refers to the transmission of characters from parents to offsprings. An inherited trait is a particular
genetically determined feature that distinguishes a person from the others for example; attached or free
ear lobes in human beings.
Rules for the inheritance of traits:
Mendel’s contribution: The rules for inheritance of traits in human beings are related to the fact that both
mother and father contribute an equal amount of genetic material i.e. DNA to their offspring. So an
offspring will get two versions of that trait from the two parents. Mendel worked out rules for inheritance
of these traits. Gregor Johann Mendel regarded as the ‘Father of Genetics’ performed his experiments with
garden peas (Pisum sativum) in the garden behind his monastery. He observed a number of contrasting
characters in garden peas and observed their inheritance.
Some important terms
1. Chromosomes are long thread-like structures present in the nucleus of a cell which contain hereditary
information of the cell in the form of genes.
2. DNA is a chemical in the chromosome which carries the traits in a coded form.
3. Gene is the part of a chromosome which controls a specific biological function.
4. Contrasting characters: A pair of visible charactes such as tall and dwarf, white and violet flowers, round
and wrinkled seeds, green and yellow seeds etc.
5. Dominant trait: The character which expresses itself in a (Ft) generation is dominant trait. Example :
Tallness is a dominant character in pea plant.
6. Recessive trait: The character which does not express itself but is present in a generation is recessive
trait. Ex. dwarfism in the pea plant.
7. Homozygous: A condition in which both the genes of same type are present for example; an organism
has both the genes for tallness it is expressed as TT and genes for dwarfness are written as tt.
8. Heterozygous: A condition in which both the genes are of different types for example; an organism has
genes Tt it means it has a gene for tallness and the other for dwarfness only tall character is expressed.
9. Genotype: It is genetic make up of an individual for example; A pure tall plant is expressed as TT and
hybrid tall as Tt.
10. Phenotype: It is external appearance of the organism for example; a plant having Tt composition will
appear tall although it has gene for dwarfness.
11. Homologous pair of characters are those in which one member is contributed by the father and the
other member by the mother and both have genes for the same character at the same position.
Mendel’s Experiment: Mendel started his experiment on the pea plants. He conducted first monohybrid
and then dihybrid crosses.
Monohybrid Cross: The cross in which Mendel showed inheritance of dominant and recessive characters is
monohybrid cross. To observe inheritance of single pair of contrasting characters he took pure tall
(genotype TT) and pure dwarf (genotype tt) pea plants and cross pollinated them to obtain first generation
or first filial generation. he took pure tall (genotype TT) and pure dwarf (genotype tt) pea plants and cross
pollinated them to obtain first generation or first filial generation. In this figuration (F1 generation) he
obtained only tall plants. This meant that only one of the parental traits was seen, not the mixture of the
 two. The plants of F generation or progeny are
then self pollinated to obtain F2 generation or
progeny. Now all plants were not tall. He
obtained 75% tall plants and 25% dwarf plants
i.e. the phenotypic ratio was 3:1. This indicates
that in the F, generation both tall and dwarf
traits were inherited but tallness expressed it
self. Tallness is a dominant trait and dwarfness
is a recessive trait. F2 generation has a
genotypic ratio of 1 : 2 : 1 of three types of
plants represented by TT, Tt and tt as shown in
the cross.
Conclusion: Phenotypic ratio—Tall : Dwarf 3 : 1
Genotype ratio—Pure Tall : Hybrid Tall : Pure
Dwarf 1 : 2 : 1
Law of Dominance: When parents having pure
contrasting characters are crossed then only
one character expresses itself in the Ft
generation. This character is the dominant
character and the character/factor which
cannot express itself is called the recessive
character.
Dihybrid Cross: Mendel also carried out experiments to observe inheritance of two pairs of contrasting
characters, which is called dihybrid cross. He cross breed pea plants bearing round green seed with plants
bearing wrinkled and yellow seeds. In the Fx generation he obtained all round and yellow seeds it means
round and yellow traits of seeds are dominant features while wrinkled and green are recessive. He self-
pollinated the plants of F: generation to obtain F2 generation, he obtained four different types of seeds
round yellow, round green, wrinkled yellow and wrinkled green in the ratio of 9 : 3 : 3 : 1. He concluded
that traits are independently inherited
Conclusion
Round and yellow seeds-9.
Round and green seeds-3.
Wrinkled and yellow seeds-3.
Wrinkled and green seeds-1.
How do traits get expressed?
Cellular DNA is the information source for making proteins in the cell.
A part of DNA that provides information for one particular protein is called a gene for that protein for
example; the height of a plant depends upon the growth hormone which is in turn controlled by the gene.
If the gene is efficient and more growth hormone is secreted the plant will grow tall. If the gene for that
particular protein gets altered and less of it is secreted when the plant will remain short. Both the parents
contribute equally to the DNA of next generation during sexual reproduction. They actually contribute a
copy of the same gene for example; when tall plant is crossed with short plant the gametes will have single
gene either for tallness or for shortness. F1 generation will get one gene for tallness and other for shortness
also.
How do germ cells i.e. gametes get single set of genes from parents who have two copies in them ?
Each gene set is present, not as a single long thread of DNA, but as separate independent pieces each
called a chromosome. Each cell gets two copies of the chromosome, one from each parent. Each germ cell
or gamete has one copy of it because there is reductional division in the sex organs at the time of formation
of gametes. When fertilization takes place normal number of chromosomes is restored in the progeny
ensuring the stability of DNA of the species.
How is the sex of a newborn individual determined?
It is the process by which sex of a newborn can be determined.
Different species use different strategies for this :
In some animals the temperature at which fertilized eggs are kept determines whether the developing
animals will be males or females.
Some animals like snails can change sex indicating that sex is not genetically determined.
In human beings sex of the individual is determined genetically; means genes inherited from the parents
decide the sex of the offspring.
Sex determination in human beings: In human beings, all chromosomes are not paired. 22 chromosomes
are paired but one pair called sex chromosome is odd in not having a
perfect pair in males. Females have a perfect pair both represented
by XX. On the other hand males have a normal sized X but the other
is short called Y so it is shown as XY. All gametes or ova formed by
the homogenetic female are similar i.e. have X chromosome. Males
heterogenetic form two types of sperms i.e. half with X chromosome
and the other half with Y chromosome. Sex of the baby will depend
on fertilization. There are two possibilities :

Autosomes: Those chromosomes which do not play any role in sex

determination.
Sex chromosomes: Those chromosomes which play a role in
determining sex of the newborn.
If the sperm having X chromosome fertilizes with ovum with X chromosome then the baby will have XX
chromosome and it will be female.
If the sperm having Y chromosome fertilizes with ovum with X chromosome then the baby will have XY
chromosomes and it will be male.
Questions
Question 1. If a trait A exists in 10% of a population of an asexually reproducing species and a trait B
exists in 60% of the same population, which trait is likely to have arisen earlier ?
Answer: Trait B, because it is present in more members of the population. It is likely to have arisen earlier
and has now spread to 60% of the population. Trait A is new and has spread to only 10% of the population.
Question 2. How does the creation of variations in a species promote survival ?
Answer: The variations provide stability to the population of various species by preventing them from
getting wiped out during adverse conditions.
The natural environment also changes, and variations in species which become suited to the environment
help it to survive.
Question 1. How do Mendel’s experiments show that traits may be dominant or recessive ? [imp]
Answer: Mendel took pea plants with contrasting characteristics tall plant and dwarf (or short) plant. On
cross pollination, he got all tall plants in first generation (F1). But by the self¬pollination of F1 tall plants, the
plants of second generation consisted of tall and short pants in the ratio of 3 : 1. On the basis of these
experiments, the characteristics appeared in first generation were called dominant (i.e. tall plants) and the
characteristics that did not appear were called recessive (dwarf i.e. plants).
Question 2. How do Mendel’s experiments show that traits are inherited independently ? [AICBSE 2015]
Answer: Mendel took two pairs of alternate expression of two traits and carried out dihybrid crosses by
crossing them. The traits appeared in first generation were termed as dominant. When he used these
F1 progeny to generate F2 progeny by self-pollination plants of different types were produced. In some
plants both the traits were dominant, while in some plants both were recessive and some plants exhibited
mixed traits. This indicates that traits are inherited independently.
Question 3. A man with blood group A marries a woman with blood group O and their daughter has
blood group O. Is this information enough to tell you which of the traits – blood group A or O – is
dominant ? Why or why not ?
Answer: This information is not enough. This is because each individual is carrying two alleles. The
recessive trait can occur only when who alleles are similar. It blood group A is dominant and O is recessive,
then daughter can have blood group O only when both recessive alleles occur together in mother, and
father has one allele of O and other of A.
Question 4. How is the sex of the child determined in human beings ?
OR
“The sex of a newborn child is a matter of chance and none of the parents may be considered
responsible for it.” Justify this statement with the help of a flow chart showing determination of sex of a
newborn. [CBSE (Delhi) 2013]
Answer: Half of the male gametes (sperms) carry X chromosome and other half carry Y chromosomes.
All the female gametes carry only X chromosomes. When a sperm fertilizes an egg, the following situations
become possible.
1. (i) When a sperm carrying X chromosome fertilises an egg that contains only X chromosome), the
resulting zygote develops into a female (XX condition).
2. (ii) When a sperm carrying Y chromosome fertilises an egg (that contains only X chromosome), the
resulting zygote develops into a male (XY condition).
Thus there are 50 – 50 chances of a male or female child and none of the parents may Sex determination in
humans be considered responsible for it.
The sex-determination mechanism is shown alongside.
Exercise
Question 1.
A Mendelian experiment consisted of breeding tall pea plants bearing violet flowers with short pea
plants bearing white flowers. The progeny all bore violet flowers, but almost half of them were short.
This suggests that the genetic make-up of the tall parent can be depicted as:
(a) TTWW (b) TTww
(c) TtWW (d) TtWw
Answer: (c) TtWW
Question 2. A study found that children with light coloured eyes
are likely to have parents with light coloured eyes. On this basis,
can we say anything about whether the light eye colour trait is
dominant or recessive ? Why or why not ?
Answer: This information is not complete. On the basis of this, it
cannot be decided light colour trait is dominant or recessive. So it
cannot be said until one does not know the nature of this trait in the
parents.
Question 3. Outline a project which aims to find the dominant coat colour in dogs.
Answer: Suppose a black homozygous male is mated with a white homozygous female. If the progeny has
all black dogs then the dominant coat colour is black.
Question 4. How is the equal genetic contribution of male and female parents ensured in the progeny
Answer: Genetic material in most organisms is present in pairs of chromosomes. Gametes in the sexually
reproducing organisms are formed by the process of meiosis during which half of the genetic material goes
into each gamete. When the gametes from male and female parents fuse with each other during sexual
reproduction, the normal complement is restored. Half of the genetic material comes from the female and
half from the male.
Question 5.
Only variations that confer an advantage to an individual organism will survive in a population. Do you
agree with this statement ? Why or why not?
Answer: Yes, variations that confer an advantage to an individual organism are inherited. The organism can
survive longer in an environment and maintain its existence in the population.
Question 6. How Do Organisms, Whether Reproduced Asexually Or Sexually Maintain a Constant
Chromosome Number Through Several Generations? Explain with the Help of Suitable Example.
Answer. In both sexual and asexual reproduction, there is great importance of maintaining a constant number of
chromosomes. But the process mechanism is dissimilar in both the type of reproductions.
(1) In case of asexual reproduction, the entire set of chromosomes is replicated and transferred to the next
generation. DNA copying is accompanied by the creation of an additional cellular material, after which the
DNA copies separate, each with its own cellular apparatus. Effectively, a cell divides to give rise to two cells.
Thus, chromosome number remains unchanged. For example: Replica of Amoeba by binary fission.
(2) In case of sexual reproduction, the chromosome number is halved to form gametes. Then these
gametes combine to restore the original chromosome number. For example: In the case of human beings
they have 46 chromosomes present in a cell, during reproduction gametes are generated which include half
the number i.e. 23. Now, when female gamete containing 23 chromosomes is combined with male gamete
with 23 chromosomes, the number is restored to original 46 (23+23).

Question 7. What is DNA copying? State its importance.

Answer. DNA copying:
1. DNA replication is another term for DNA copying.
2. DNA replication is the biological process of creating two identical duplicates of DNA from a single
original DNA molecule.
Importance of DNA copying:
1. It ensures that each daughter cell produced at the end of cell division receives an identical amount
of DNA.
2. It causes evolution by generating variety during sexual reproduction.
3. It aids the transmission of information or traits from parents to children.
Question 8. Explain in brief how Mendel interpreted his results to show that the traits may be dominant
or recessive.
Answer. Mendel crossed tall pea plants with dwarf pea plants. He obtained tall plants in the first generation
and when first generation was self crossed tall and dwarf pea plants were obtained in a ratio of 3 tall and 1
dwarf pea plants. This shows that the tall trait was dominant over the dwarf trait as in first generation no
dwarf plant was obtained and in second generation tall plants was 75% as compared to 25% of dwarf
plants.
Question 9. What are the dominant and recessive traits.

Answer. Dominant traits are always expressed when the connected allele is
dominant, even if only one copy of the dominant trait exists. Recessive traits are
expressed only if both the connected alleles are recessive. If one of the alleles is
dominant, then the associated characteristic is less likely to manifest.
Question 10. Name the plant Mendel used for his experiment. What type of progency was
obtained by Mendel in F_{1} and F_{2} generations when he crossed the tall and short
plants ? Write the ratio he obtained in F_{2} generation plants.

Answer. Mendel used pea plant for his experiment. When Mendel performed a
cross between tall plant and dwarf plant he found that all the plants in F1
generation are tall. In F2 generation 75% of plants were tall while 25% of plants
were dwarf. The ratio obtained in F2 generation is 3 : 1.