HEREDITY
HEREDITY: - The transmission of characters from the parents to their offspring’s is called
heredity.
VARIATION: - The differences in the characters among the individuals of a species is called
variation. The great advantage of variations to a species is that it increases the chance of its
survival in a changing environment.
CHROMOSOME: - A chromosome is an organized package of DNA found in the nucleus of
the cell. Different organisms have different numbers of chromosomes. Chromosome carries
hereditary information in the form of genes.
GENE: - A gene is a unit of DNA on a chromosome which governs the synthesis of one protein
that controls a specific characteristic of an organism. Genes are actually units of heredity which
transfer characteristics from parents to their offspring’s during reproduction.
DOMINANT GENE: - The gene which decides the appearance of an organism even in the
presence of an alternative gene is known as a dominant gene. It dominated the recessive gene for
the same characteristic on the other chromosome of the pair.
RECESSIVE GENE: - The gene which can decide the appearance of an organism only in the
presence of another identical gene is called a recessive gene.
ALLELES :- Every gene has two alternative forms for a character, each of which produces
different effects in an organism. These alternative forms are called alleles. Example: In case of pea
plants, the stem height is controlled by two alleles—one for tallness and the other for dwarfness.
HOMOZYGOUS:- Homozygous is a genetic condition where an individual inherits the same
alleles of a gene from both the parents. Eg. TT for Tallness or or tt for dwarfness.
HETEROZYGOUS:- Heterozygous is a genetic condition where an individual inherits different
alleles of a gene from the two parents. Eg. Tt for Tallness
GENOTYPE: - Genotype is the description of genes present in an organism and a pair of letters
TT, Tt or tt.
PHENOTYPE: - The characteristic which is visible in an organism is called its phenotype and
‘tall’ or ‘dwarf‘.
FIRST FILIAL GENERATION OR F1 GENERATION: - When two parents cross to produce
progeny, then their progeny is called first filial generation or F1 generation.
SECOND FILIAL GENERATION OR F2 GENERATION: - When the first generation
progeny cross among themselves to produce second progeny, then this progeny is called second
filial generation or F2 generation.
HYBRID: - A new form of plant resulting from a cross of different varieties of a plant is known
as a hybrid.
MENDEL AND HIS WORK ON INHERITANCE
Gregor Johann Mendel (1822&1884): Started his experiments on plant breeding and
hybridization.
Mendel ----Father of Genetics
Plant selected by Mendel: Pisum sativum (garden pea). Mendel used a number of contrasting
characters for garden pea.
Mendel’s Experiments : Mendel conducted a series of experiments in which he crossed the
pollinated plants to study one character (at a time).
Monohybrid Cross: Cross between two pea plants with one pair (monohybrid cross)
contrasting characters.
Example: Tall / Short Plants.
Observations:
1. All F1 progeny were tall (no medium height plant)
2. F2 progeny ¼ were short
3. Phenotypic ratio F2 – 3:1
Genotypic ratio F2 – [Link]
Conclusions :
1. TT and Tt both are tall plants while tt is a short plant.
2. 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.
3. Characters/Traits like 'T' are called dominant trait (because it expresses itself) 't' are
recessive trait (because it remains suppressed).
Dihybrid Cross: A cross made between two plants having two pairs of contrasting characters is
called dihybrid cross.
Observations:
1. When RRYY was crossed with rryy in F1 generation all were RrYy round and yellow
seeds.
2. Self-pollination of F1 plants gave parental phenotype + two mixtures (recombinants) Round
wrinkled, green yellow seeds plants appeared in the ratio of [Link]
Conclusions:
1. Round and yellow seeds are DOMINANT characters.
2. Occurrence of new phenotypic combinations shows that genes for round and yellow seeds are
Inherited independently of each other.
Mendel’s laws
The two experiments lead to the formulation of Mendel’s laws known as laws of inheritance which
are:
1. Law of Dominance
2. Law of Segregation
3. Law of Independent Assortment
Law of Dominance
This is also called as Mendel’s first law of inheritance. According to the law of dominance, hybrid
offsprings will only inherit the dominant trait in the phenotype. The alleles that are suppressed are
called as the recessive traits while the alleles that determine the trait are known as the dormant traits.
Law of Segregation
The law of segregation states that during the production of gametes, two copies of each hereditary
factor segregate so that offspring acquire one factor from each parent. In other words, allele
(alternative form of the gene) pairs segregate during the formation of gamete and re-unite randomly
during fertilization. This is also known as Mendel’s third law of inheritance.
Law of Independent Assortment
Also known as Mendel’s second law of inheritance, the law of independent assortment states that a
pair of trait segregates independently of another pair during gamete formation. As the
individual heredity factors assort independently, different traits get equal opportunity to occur
together.
Sex Determination
Phenomenon of decision or determination of sex of an offspring.
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 chromosomes that help in deciding gender of that
individual are called sex chromosome.
XX – female XY – male
This shows that half the children will be boys and half will be girls. All children will inherit an X
chromosome from their mother regardless whether they are boys or girls. Thus sex of children will
be determined by what they inherit from their father, and not from their mother.
