Ch 9_Heridity

Heredity refers to the transmission of characters from parents to offsprings. An inherited

Importance of Variations
• It is the basis of heredity.
• It is the basis of evolution also.
• It increases the chances of the survival of the organism according to the
changing environment.
Causes of variation
The most common causes of variations are mutation, recombination and random
mating. Recombination or crossing over is one of the important reasons for variation.
It is an exchange of chromosome segments at the time of gamete formation.
Mendel’s work
• Gregor Johann Mendel, known as the ‘Father of Genetics’, was an Austrian Monk
who worked on pea plants to understand the concept of heredity.
• His work laid the foundation of modern genetics.
• He made three basic laws of inheritance – The Law of Dominance, The Law of
Segregation and The Law of Independent Assortment.
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.
Mendel after carefully study selected the pea plant for many reasons:

• The pea plant is an annual plant and so many generations of the plant can be
studied in a short period of time. Pea can be termed as biennial plant, i.e. two
generations of a pea plant can grow in a given year. This means that Mendel
could get enough time to observe a larger number of generations.
• The pea plants were easy to grow and maintain
• Produce large number of offspring.
• It has many clearly distinct and contrasting characters.
• Peas are naturally self-pollinating but can also be cross-pollinated.
Mendel made a list of contrasting characters which he studied:

Mendel structured his experiments in a way that he would observe one pair of contrasting
characters at one time. He began his experiments using purebred lines for contrasting
characters.
He cross-pollinated two pure lines for contrasting characters and the resultant offsprings were
called F1 generation(also called the first filial generation). The F1 generations were then self-
pollinated which gave rise to the F2 generation of second filial generation.
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.

Laws of Inheritance
Mendel proposed three laws:
• Law of Dominance
• The Law of Segregation
• Law of independent assortment
Law of Dominance

This law states that in a heterozygous condition, the allele whose characters are expressed
over the other allele is called the dominant allele and the characters of this dominant allele are
called dominant characters. The characters that appear in the F1 generation are called as
dominant characters. The recessive characters appear in the F2 generation.

Law of Segregation
This law states that when two traits come together in one hybrid pair, the two characters do
not mix with each other and are independent of each other. Each gamete receives one of the
two alleles during meiosis of the chromosome.

Mendel’s law of segregations supports the phenotypic ratio of 3:1 i.e. the homozygous
dominant and heterozygous offsprings show dominant traits while the homozygous recessive
shows the recessive trait.

Law of Independent Assortment

This means that at the time of gamete formation, the two genes segregate independently of
each other as well as of other traits. Law of independent assortment emphasizes that there are
separate genes for separate traits and characters and they influence and sort themselves
independently of the other genes.

This law also says that at the time of gamete and zygote formation, the genes are
independently passed on from the parents to the offspring.

SEX DETERMINATION
Determination of sex of an offspring.
FACTORS
Sex Chromosomes :In human beings there are 23 pairs of chromosome. Out of these 22
chromosomes pairs are called autosomes and the last pair of chromosome that help in
deciding gender of that individual is called sex chromosome.

XX – female
XY – male

How traits are transferred from parents to offspring’s?

The nucleus of a cell contains chromosomes that carry genetic information. Chromosomes
are made from long, coiled molecules of DNA. DNA contains genes and they are units of
heredity and are responsible for inheritance. Genes control the expression of
characteristics. Different genes are responsible for different traits. In other words, a gene
carries the genetic code for a particular characteristic. For example, height of an organism,
complexion, and shape of nose are all controlled by different genes.
Characters are transferred through genes present in the DNA molecules in the
chromosomes present in the nucleus of the cell.
The inheritance of characters is due to the fact that both the father and mother
contributes equal amount of genetic material to the child. So for each trait there are two
factors one from the father and one from the mother.