Heredity

Technical terms
 Genetics
It is the branch of biology that deals with transmission of heredity and
variations from parents to offspring and the laws related to these
transmissions.
 Offspring
Young ones which are born through sexual reproduction are called
offsprings.
 Ramets
Young ones which are produced through asexual reproduction are
called ramets.
 Heredity
It is the transmission of characters from parents to offspring or from
one generation to the next.
 Inheritance
The process by which traits are passed from one generation to the next
is called inheritance.
 Trait
 It is distinguishable expression of a character.
 It is of two types-
A. Inherited traits-
 These are the traits which are transferred from one generation
to the next.
 They are controlled by genetic material of the individual.
 They are present since birth.
 Example – attached and free earlobe,eye colour, height,skin
colour,etc
B. Acquired traits:-
 These are the traits which cannot be passed from one
generation to the next.
 They are not controlled by genetic material of the individual.
 They are acquired after birth.
 Example – skills like- dancing, swimming,etc.
 Alleles:
They are various forms of a gene which occur at the particular
position over a chromosome.
 Factor/ Gene-
 a. It is the unit of inheritance.It takes part in expression of a
particular character.
b. It occurs in pairs.
c. It is of two types
A. Dominant factor/ gene-
 It is the factor / allele which expresses itself even in the
presence of recessive allele.
 It is denoted by Capital letters.
 It can be homozygous dominant or heterozygous dominant.
 Example – TT,Tt
B. Recessive factor/ allele:
 It is the allele which can express itself only in the
presence of its identical allele.
 It is denoted by Small letters.
 It is always homozygous.
 Example – tt
 Phenotype:
a. It is observable characters of an individual.
b. Example – height ,weight, skin colour,etc.
 Genotype:
a. It is genetic description of genes.
b. Example – Tt,tt,Tt
 Monohybrid cross:-
It is a cross between two organisms of the same species which studies
the inheritance of two traits of a single character.Example- tall and
dwarf,round and wrinkled,etc
 Dihybrid cross-
It is a cross between two organisms surface species need to study
inheritance of two pairs of traits of two characters.Example- round -
green seed and wrinkled – yellow seeds.
 Monohybrid ratio-
The phenotypic ratio 3:1 obtained in F-2 generation of monohybrid
cross is called monohybrid ratio.
 Dihybrid ratio-
The phenotypic ratio 9:3:3:1 obtained in F-2 generation of dihybrid
cross is called dihybrid ratio.
 F-1 generation (1st filial generation)
It is the generation produced from cross between genetically different
parents.
 F-2 generation
 These offspring arise from breeding of F-1 generation parents.
Gregor Johann Mendel
 He is known a s Father of Genetics.
 He discovered the mechanism of transmission of characters
from one generation to the next.
 He performed hybridisation experiments.
 Model/ Experimental material
-He chose pea plant( Pisum sativum) for his experiments.
 Reasons for choosing Pea plants:-
a. Annual plant.
b. Formation of large no. Of seeds by each plant.
c. Easy detectable contrasting characters.
d. Less care needed by the plants to grow.
e. Short generation time.
f. Both self and cross pollination can occur as pea is a
bisexual plant.
Monohybrid cross:
 To study the inheritance of one character ,Mendel chose
height of the pea plant.
 Mendel crossed pure breed tall pea plants with purebred
dwarf pea plants.
 in the F1 generation all the pea plants were tall Resembling
only one of the parents.
 Upon self pollinating F1 generation plants Mendel found that
F2 generation consisted of both tall and dwarf plants in the
ratio 3 :1.
 The genotypic ratio of the F2 generation was 1:2:1(TT:Tt:tt)
 Appearance off dwarf plants in F2 generation indicates that
F1 plants contained the traits of both tallness and dwarfness.
However, only one trait of tallness expressed itself.
 The trait which expressed itself in the hybrid is called
dominant while the other which was unable to express itself
in the presence of dominant trait is called recessive trait.
 on the basis of monohybrid cross mental give two laws of
inheritance-
A. Law of dominance
B. law of segregation or law of purity of gametes.

Draw the cross

Dihybrid cross-
 For studying inheritance of two genes
characters selected by Mendel-
a) Shape of seed-
Round(dominant)RR and wrinkled
(recessive)rr
b) Colour of seed-
c)Yellow (dominant)YY and
green(recessive)yy
 To study the inheritance of two genes,Mendel
crossed pure breed round yellow Seeded plant
(RRYY)with pure breed wrinkled green seeded
plant(rryy )
 He found that in F1 generation all the plants
produced round yellow seeded plant.(RrYy)
 Upon selfing F-1 generation plants,F-2
generation plants consisted of following plants-
Round yellow seed-9
 Round green seed -3
Wrinkled yellow seeds -3
Wrinkled green seed -1
 Mendel found that in addition to parental
combinations,new combinations of traits also
appeared in F-2 generation.
 On the basis of dihybrid cross Mendel gave-
Law of Independent Assortment.
 The phenotypic ratio 9:3:3:1 is known as
Dihybrid ratio.
Draw the cross
 Autosome –
 These are the chromosomes which control
normal functions of the body other than sex
determination.
Allosome/ sex chromosome
 These are those chromosome which
determines the sex of the individual in
unisexual organism.
 X and Y are the two sex chromosome.
Blood Group:-
Note:-
Q.1Variations that confer an advantage to an
individual organism only will survive in a
population.” Justify.
Solution -
Useful variations give advantage to individuals
in obtaining more food, adaptation to
environmental changes and higher success in
the struggle for existence. They give benefit in
survival and reproduction.
Reproduction increases the useful variations in
the populations. Other individuals with harmful
variations will be eliminated.
For example, some bacteria have ability to
tolerate high temperature. In warm
environment non-tolerant bacteria will be
killed. Others with tolerance to high
temperature will survive and multiply.

Q.2 Give the basic features of mechanism of

inheritance.
Solution -
Basic Features of Inheritance.
1. An organism is made of a large
number of characters, each of which
behaves as a unit.

2 .Characters are controlled by

genes.
3 A single gene generally controls
one character.
4 Genes are located on
chromosomes.
5 A gene may have two or more
forms called alleles.
They represent different traits of
a character.
6 An individual possesses two
alleles of every gene. The two
may be similar or dissimilar.
7 Where there are two different
forms or alleles of the gene,
generally one expresses its
effect. It is called dominant allele.
The other which does not express
its effect in presence of dominant
allele, is called recessive allele.