Chapter 8 Heredity

Chapter 8 Heredity
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.
Biology textbooks
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. 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.
Evolution: Acquired and inherited traits, Speciation, Evolution and classification,
Evolution by stages, Human evolution.
Evolution: It is the sequence, of gradual, irreversible changes which took place in the
primitive organisms over millions of years to form new present-day species. Variations
that resulted in formation of new species occurred basically due to errors in DNA
copying as well as due to sexual reproduction.
An Illustration to show variations in a population: A group of twelve red beetles live in
green bushes and reproduce sexually so are likely to develop variations. There are the
following possibilities
First situation: Crows eat these beetles as they can easily pick up red ones in the
green bushes There is a colour variation during sexual reproduction and green beetles
appears, it reproduces and its population increases. Crows are not able to see green
beetles so their population continues to increase but that of red beetles decreases. This
type of variation gives a survival advantage.
Second situation: Due to a colour variation few blue beetle appear forming blue
population. Crows can see both red and blue and eat them. Initially there are more of
red beetles and less of blue. There is sudden calamity, an elephant kills red beetles by
stamping on bush, blue beetles survive reproduce and increase in number. In this case
there is no survival advantage but provides diversity without any adaptation.
Third situation: As the population of beetles increases, the bushes suffer from a
disease and the availability of food for beetles decreases. The size of beetles decrease
but after a few years as the plant disease is eliminated and enough food is available
for the beetles they come back to their normal size. This type of change is not inherited.
Acquired Traits: Acquired traits are those which are not inherited over generations as
they are caused due to change in the non-reproductive tissue and are not passed on
the DNA of the germ cells for example; the size of the beetles in the population
decreased due to scarcity of food.
Inherited Trait: Inherited traits are caused due to changes in the DNA of germ cells
which are inherited from generation to generation, for example; formation of green
beetles in the population of red beetles.
Acquired Traits and Inherited Traits
Acquired Traits Inherited Traits
(i) These are the traits which are developed in (i) These are the traits which are passed
an individual due to special conditions. from one generation to the next.
(ii) They cannot be transferred to the
(ii) They get transferred to the progeny.
progeny.
(iii) They cannot direct evolution, e.g. low (iii) They cannot direct evolution, e.g.
weight of starving beetles. low weight of starving beetles.

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Chapter 8 Heredity

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

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