Contents

Mendels experiment - Mendels result - Genes and allele - Dominant and recessive alleles - Phenotype and genotype - Homozygote and hereozygot - Importance of meiosis 1 in the segregation of alleles - Mendels first law of inheritance - Dihybrid inheritance - Mendels second law Inheritance of traits in humans - Blood groups in the ABO system and the rhesus factor - Different human karyotypes - Sex determination in offspring - Sex-linked inheritance Genes and chromosomes - Unit of inheritance and location of genes - Structure of DNA - How a trait is manifested from the basic unit or inheritance - Importance of genetic research to mankind - Application and abuse knowledge in genetics - The need for ethics and morals in the application of genetics Inheritance past year question

Mendels experiment
~ Inheritance is the process of genetic transmission of characteristics from parents to offspring. ~ A character or characteristic is a distinctive structural or functional feature determined by a gene or group of genes. ~ A trait is a specific characteristic that varies from one individual to another.

Table 1 Characters and traits in some organisms Character / characteristic Eye colour in humans Trait Black Blue

Fruit shapes in tomatoes

Round Long

Eye colour in fruits flies

Red White

Pod colour in garden peas

Green Yellow

Mendelian inheritance
1. Observation of characters and traits in Mendels experiments. (a) Gregor Mendel was the first person to work out the basic laws that govern the inheritance of genes.

(b) Starting from about 1856, for a period of ten years, Mendel conducted his famous breeding experiments with the garden pea (Pisum sativum). (c) Mendel isolated plants which are pure-breeding, that is, when bred with each other, they produce consistently the same characteristics over many generations. (d) Mendel chose characters which had two contrasting traits. (e) Monohybrid inheritance refers to the inheritance of a single character. Mendels result character Height of plant Flower colour Flower position Pod shape Cross selected Tall x dwarf Purple x white Axial x terminal Inflatedx constricted F1 All tall All purple All axial All inflated F2 787 tall, 277 dwarf 705 purple, 224 white 651 axial, 207 terminal 882 inflated, 229 constricted 428 green, 152 yellow 5474 smooth, 1850 wrinkled 6022 yellow, 2001 green ratio 2.84:1 3.15:1 3.14:1 2.95:1

Pod colour Seed shape Seed colour

Green x yellow Smooth x wrinkled Yellow x green

All green All smooth All yellow

2.82:1 2.96:1 3.01:1

(f) Table 5.3 shows that for all the characters investigated, a ratio close to 3:1 was obtained in the F2 generation of monohybrid inheritance. Gene and alleles (a) A gene is a hereditary unit consisting of a segment of a DNA molecule which occupies a position on a chromosome called a locus (plural: loci). (b) The gene determines a particular character of an organism, for example, the height of a pea plant.

(c) Each gene may have two, or more, alternative forms. Each form of the gene is called an allele. (d) The gene for the height of the pea plants has two alleles, one for tallness, and the other for dwarfness. Dominant alleles and recessive alleles (a) Some alleles are dominant; others are recessive. (b) An organisms with a dominant allele for a particular form of a trait will always exhibit that form of a trait. (c) An organism with a recessive allele for a particular form of a trait will exhibit that form only when the dominant allele for the trait is not present. (d) In Mendels experiment, the allele for tall plants was dominant and the allele for short plants was recessive. (e) We normally use the upper case (capital) letter to represent the dominant allele and the lower case letters to represent the recessive allele. In the example for the height of pea plant we can use T to represent the dominant allele for tallness t to represent the recessive allele for dwarfness. Phenotype and genotype a) genotype is the genetic make-up or genetic constitution of an organism. The genotype represented by paired symbols. b) as the parent plants were pure-bred, the genotype of one of the parents can be represented as TT and the other as tt. The genotype of all F1 plants is Tt. c) Phenotype is the outward appearance of the organism, that is, the way the genes express themselves in the structure of organism. d) Plants with genotypes TT and Tt have the tall phenotype. Plants with genotype tt have the short phenotype.

2. Hereditary factor (a) Mendel concluded that traits are not blended together like different colours of paint to produce an intermediate result, but that they were determined by definite, discrete particles which he called factors. (b) Although all the F1 plants were tall, they received from their dwarf parent a factor for dwarfness which remained hidden in the F1 generation but revealed its presence in the F2 generation. (c) Although Mendel knew nothing of genes and chromosomes, he suggested that his factors must be transmitted from parents to offspring via gametes. 3. Dominant traits and recessive traits (a) The pea plants carry two traits for each character, one trait coming from each parent. (b) As all F1 plants are tall, the trait for tallness must be dominant to the factor to dwarfness . (c) Dominant trait is a trait that appears in the offspring even if only one pf the parents contributed it. The dominant trait is the prevailing trait. (d) Recessive trait is a trait that must be contributed by both parents and will only appear in the offspring in the absence of a dominant allele. Homozygote and heterozygote a) when two identical alleles occur together as the same locus on pair of homologous chromosomes, they are said to be homozygous, for example when two alleles for tallness occur together (TT), they are said to be homozygous dominant. When the two alleles for dwarfness occur together (tt), they are referred to homozygous recessive.

b) When two different alleles occur together at the same locus on a pair of homologous chromosome (Tt), they are said to be heterozygous. (c) The organism that has the same alleles at a particular gene locus on homologous chromosomes is called homozygote. (d) The organism that has different alleles at a particular gene locus on homologous chromosomes is called heterozygote. (e) Homologous chromosomes are a pair of matching chromosomes in an organism, in which one is derived from male parent, the other from female parent. The important of meiosis I in the segregation of alleles (a) Mendels factor are actually genes (b) The process which produces gametes is meiosis. (c) In meiosis I, the pairs of homologous chromosome are separated. (d) In meiosis II, the chromatids are pulled apart and each gamete formed has a set of chromosomes. Mendels first law (a) Mendels first law is known as Law of Segregation. The characteristics of an organism are determined by internal factors which occur in pairs. Only one of a pair of such factors can be represented in a single gamete. (b) According to the law, an organism has two version of each gene, but only one of these versions is passed on to the offspring. This is because of meiosis.