Grade X Reference Questions and Answers

HEREDITY
IMPORTANT TERMS:
1. Heredity: – It can be defined as the transmission of characters and traits from the parents to their
off-springs. Heredity is also called inheritance.
2. Alleles: – Alleles are the alternate form of a gene.
3. Phenotype: – The external / observable characteristics of an organism constitute its phenotype.
4. Genotype: – A genotype is an organism’s complete set of heritable genes or genes that can be passed
down from parents to offspring The genetic constitution of an organism is its genotype.
5. Homozygote: – It is an individual organism in which the members of a pair of alleles for a character
are similar. Upper case TT and Lower Case tt are HOMOGYGOUS
6. Heterozygote: – It is an individual organism in which the members of a pair of alleles of a character
are different. Upper case T and lower case t (Tt) is HETEROGYGOUS
7. Dominant character: – The form of the character which is expressed in the F1 hybrid is called
dominant character.
8. Recessive character: – The form of the character which is suppressed in the presence of the dominant
character in a hybrid is called recessive character.
9. Monohybrid cross: – It is a cross between individuals of the same species, in which the inheritance of
contrasting pairs of a single trait is considered.
10. Dihybrid cross: – It is a cross between two individuals of the same species, in which the inheritance of
contrasting pairs of two traits is considered.
11. Species : A group of similar individuals within a population that can interbreed and produce
offspring.
12. Geneflow : It is an exchange of genetic material by interbreeding between populations of
same species or individuals.
13. Variation: The differences in the characters or traits among the individuals of a species.
14. Genes: are units of heredity which transfer characters or traits from the parents to their off
springs during reproduction.

Questions and Answers

1. What is meant by accumulation of variation?

2. Inheritance from the previous generation provides both a common basic body design, and subtle
changes in it, for the next generation. when this new generation, in its turn, reproduces. The
second generation will have differences that they inherit from the first generation, as well as newly
created differences
3. How does the creation of variations in a species promote survival?
Variations take place in response to the changes in the environment. Such variations enable a species
to cope with the new changes. Thus, variations help a species in survival.
4. Explain how sexual reproduction gives rise to more viable variations than asexual
reproduction.
Variations occurring during sexual reproduction may be due to:
• Fertilization of gametes to form zygote.
• Errors during DNA copying or mutations. In asexually reproducing organisms only errors during
DNA copying or mutations cause variations.
• Since the extent of variations is much larger in sexually reproducing organisms, therefore, the
chances of evolution is also much in sexually reproduction. These variations enable the
organisms to adapt themselves to the changing conditions and also help to face the struggle for
Over the time, they and rise to new species.
[Link] did Mendel’s contribution to genetics?
Gregor Mendel, through his work on pea plants, discovered the fundamental laws of
inheritance.

6. Where is DNA found in the cell?

DNA is located in the cell nucleus
 7. List the causes and importance/significance of variation?
➢ Mutation in a gene or chromosomal pattern also causes variation.(mutation is a change in the DNA
sequence)
➢ Sexual reproduction promotes genetic variation by producing different gene combinations.
Importance
➢ It forms the basis of heredity.
➢ It enables the organisms to adapt themselves in changing the environment.
➢ It helps the evolution and development of new species.

8. If a trait A exists in 10% population of an asexually reproducing species and trait B exists
in 60% of the same population, which trait is likely to have arisen earlier?

Trait B is likely to have arisen earlier as it occurs in more number.

9. 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?

No, many of the times the variations are not advantageous to an individual organism but still survive
in a population, e.g., take the case of free ear lobe and attached ear lobe. Most of the other variations
not only give survival advantage to an individual but also contribute to genetic drift. Thus, we can say
that most of the variations lead to better adaptation of an organism to the changing environment. In
this way, it gives survival advantage to that organism and will also survive in the coming population.

10. How do Mendel’s experiments show that traits may be dominant or recessive?
❖ He took pea plants with different characteristics – a tall plant and a short plant, produced progeny
from them, and calculated the percentages of tall or short progeny.
❖ In the first place, there were no halfway characteristics in this first generation, or F1 progeny –
no ‘medium-height’ plants. All plants were tall.
❖ This meant that only one of the parental traits was seen, not some mixture of the two.
❖ Mendelian experiments test this by getting both the parental plants and these F1 tall plants to
reproduce by self-pollination.
❖ The progeny of the parental plants are, of course, all tall. However, the second-generation, or F2,
progeny of the F1 tall plants are not all tall. Instead, one quarter of them are short.
❖ This indicates that both the tallness and shortness traits were inherited in the F1 plants, but only
the tallness trait was expressed.
❖ Thus, two copies of the trait are inherited in each sexually reproducing organism. These two may
be identical, or may be different, depending on the parentage. A pattern of inheritance can be
worked out with this assumption.
❖ In this explanation, both TT and Tt are tall plants, while only tt is a short plant. In other words, 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. Traits like ‘T’ are called dominant traits, while those that behave like ‘t’ are called
recessive traits.
Refer diagram Text Book fig: 9.3

11. Why did Mendel select pea plant for his experiment?

• Pea is an annual plant. Therefore, many generations can be studied within a short period of time.
• Many easily identifiable and contrasting characters are present in pea plants.
• The pea plant can be easily grown and maintained.
• They are naturally self-pollinating but can also be cross-pollinated.
• It has several contrasting characters.
•
12. Define dihybrid cross
It is a cross between two individuals of the same species, in which the inheritance of contrasting pairs
of two traits is considered.

13. Mention the different characteristics of garden pea, observed by Mendel in his
 hybridization experiments.
Mendel used a number of contrasting visible characters of garden peas – round/wrinkled seeds, tall/short
plants, white/violet flowers and so on.
He took pea plants with different characteristics – a tall plant and a short plant, produced progeny from
them, and calculated the percentages of tall or short progeny.

14. What are characteristics?

Characteristics are details of appearance or behaviour; in other words, a particular form or a particular
function.

15. In what way are the off springs produced through sexual reproduction different from those
produced by asexual reproduction?
Asexual reproduction produces identical offspring while sexual reproduction does not produce offspring
that are exactly similar to the parents.

16. When Mendel crossed a Tall plant with a dwarf plant, no medium height plants were
obtained in F1 generation. Why?
No medium height plants were obtained in F1 generation because dominant genes express themselves and
suppress the effect of recessive genes. There is no mixing of alleles in the F1 generation.

[Link] do you mean by autosomes?

Autosomes are the chromosomes which are associated with the functioning of the cells and determination of
characters and traits of the individual. There are22 pairs of autosomal chromosomes in human beings.

18. Explain DNA’s utility in the process of reproduction of the cell.

It carries genetic information and required by the cells to divide and produce proteins for regulation,
structural and functional roles. During the gamete formation, DNA creates its exact copies which are passed
to the gametes. The fusion of male and female gamete results in the development of variations. Thus, it is
the DNA which acts as the blue print that is passed from generation to generation.

19. What is DNA copying. State its importance.

DNA replication is another term for DNA copying. DNA replication is the biological process of creating two
identical duplicates of DNA from original DNA molecule.

Importance of DNA copying

• It ensures that each daughter cell produced at the end of cell division receives an identical amount of
DNA
• It causes evolution by generating variety during sexual reproduction.
• It aids the transmission of information or traits from parents to ofsprings.

20. What is the function of genes in an organism?

Genes are the segments of DNA which control the traits and characteristics of an individual.
21. We have 23 pairs of chromosomes but still numerous characters are found in humans.
How can we justify this?
There are only 23 pairs of chromosomes in humans, but 30,000 to 40,000 genes are present in the DNA.
This implies that each chromosome carries numerous genes on it. These genes are responsible for all the
characteristic features. This is the reason that we have numerous characters, definitely exceeding 46 in
number.

[Link] do Mendel’s experiments show that traits are inherited independently?

In a dihybrid cross made by Mendel, it was observed that when two pairs of traits or characters were
considered; each trait expressed independent of the other. Thus, Mendel was able to propose the Law of
Independent Assortment which says about independent inheritance of traits.

Through his dihybrid cross experiment, Mendel demonstrated that characteristics are inherited
independently. He used two traits in his experiment, namely seed shape and seed colour. Yellow (YY) has the
upper case over green (yy), while the round form (RR) has the upper case over the wrinkled shape (rr). The
dihybrid cross’s F2 progeny had a phenotypic ratio of [Link]. Hence, 9 plants had round yellow (RRYY)
seeds. 3 plants had round green (RRyy) seeds. 3 plants had wrinkled yellow (rrYY) seeds and one plant had
wrinkled green seeds (rryy). We can say that the wrinkled greens and round yellows are parental
combinations. But the round green and wrinkled yellow are new combinations. A dihybrid cross between two
seeds with dominant (RRYY) and Recessive (rryy) characteristics produced four different types of gametes
(RY, Ry, rY and ry). This indicates that each gamete segregates independently of the others, with each
segregating at a rate of 25% of the total gametes generated.

23. How is the sex of the child determined in human beings?

Most human chromosomes have a maternal and a paternal copy, and we have 22 such pairs. But one
pair, called the sex chromosomes, is odd in not always being a perfect pair. Women have a perfect pair
of sex chromosomes, both called X. But men have a mismatched pair in which one is a normal-sized X
while the other is a short one called Y. So women are XX, while men are XY. Now, can we work out what
the inheritance pattern of X and Y will be?
half the children will be boys and half will be girls. All children will inherit an X chromosome from their
mother regardless of whether they are boys or girls. Thus, the sex of the children will be determined by
what they inherit from their father. A child who inherits an X chromosome from her father will be a girl,
and one who inherits a Y chromosome from him will be a boy.
Refer Text Book Diagram Figure 9.6 Sex determination in human beings

24. Why do all the gametes formed in human females have an X chromosome?
Human females have two similar sex chromosomes. Hence, during meiosis at the time of gamete formation,
one X-chromosome enters each gamete. Hence, all the gametes possess an X- chromosome which means all
the gametes produced will have only one type of sex chromosome which is the X chromosome.

25. How is the equal genetic contribution of male and female parents ensured in the progeny?

Equal contribution of male and female parents is ensured in progeny during sexual reproduction. Each trait
of progeny is determined by a pair of alleles and gametes of male and female contain one allele. Each allele
pairs during fertilisation combine together to determine traits. Thus, the traits of progeny are determined by
equal genes from male and female.

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