(7 marks)

Outline Mendels theories of inheritance and evaluate their impact on other theories
presented by the following scientists;
In your answer include:
- Boveri and Sutton
- Thomas Hunt Morgan
The law of independent segregation, states that inherited characteristics exist in alternative
forms, which today are known as alleles.
The law of independent assortment, Mendel came to the conclusion that specific traits operate
independently of one another. The law of dominance, that one factor or gene is dominant and
the other recessive and they appear in a definite ratio (3:1).
Walter Sutton worked with marine life forms and in an experiment he became familiar with the
process of reduction division as he called it or today known as meiosis, he came to the
conclusion after half the sperm and egg cells reduced, so did the number of chromosomes, with
the original number restored in the zygote during reproduction, this process was consistent with
the Mendelian law of segregation. This in turn constituted the physical basis of the Mendelian
law of heredity.
Thomas Hunt Morgan through the drosophila experiment validated Mendels law of dominance,
that one factor or gene is dominant and the other recessive, this is shown after he bred fruit
flies and noticed one fruit fly with a distinctive characteristic, white eyes as opposed to red. After
he mated a white eyed Drosophila it to an ordinary red fly, his results showed that all white-eyed
fruit flies that he bred were male. He then came to the conclusion that males had the XY gene
and females had the XX gene, so if the factor for eye colour was located exclusively on the X
chromosome, he concluded this characteristic as a sex-linked trait. Additionally, all first
generation (F1) offspring of a mutated white eyed male and a normal red eyed female would
have red eyes because every chromosome pair would contain at least one copy of the X
chromosome with the dominant trait, half the females from this generation would now posses a
copy of the males white eyed recessive X chromosome. Therefore the males offspring are more
likely to show the phenotype of the white eye because the recessive traits are inherited from the
mother known as X-linked inheritance.





(5 marks)

Through the Beadle and Tatums bread mold (neurospora carssa) experiment explain it
significance to our current understanding of genetics.
A gene is a piece of a DNA molecule that codes for a specific polypeptide. DNA base pairs form
codons, which determine the amino acid to be sequenced and therefore the polypeptides
produced. Polypeptides then join to become proteins. Proteins control all chemical reactions and
therefore all cellular activities, as a result, it can be concluded that genes determine the
characteristics of an organism.
Such understanding was first deduced from Beadle and Tatums bread mold Neurospora
crassa experiment.
Bread mold was selected because it can be cultured easily and only possess one set of
unpaired chromosomes, therefore any mutations could be expressed immediately. Beadle and
Tatum found some of the mutant spores would not replicate without the addition of a specific
amino acid, arginine. As a result, they developed four strains of arginine-dependent Neurospora,
all strains showed the lost in the use of a specific gene that facilitates the enzyme necessary to
produce arginine. They concluded this as the one gene, one enzyme hypothesis. However,
through our current understanding of protein synthesis, scientists have refined the theory into
one gene, one polypeptide hypothesis.











(3 marks)
Predict by completing the Punnett-Square below as Thomas Hunt Morgan did of colour
blindness and State the percentage of offspring, which are likely to have the effected
phenotype.

XB Xb
XB
Y





Answer:
XB Xb
XB XBXB XBXb
Y XBY XbY

would have the effected genotype = 25%




Key:
B=Normal
b=Colour blind
(2 marks)
Name and describe Boveri and Suttons findings in their experiments in their in relation to
the Mendelian laws of heredity.

Walter Sutton worked with marine life forms and had become familiar with the process of
reduction division (meiosis) which gives rise to reproductive gametes. This process was
consistent with the Mendelian law of segregation, which is the law which states inherited
characteristics exist in alleles (made from the parent cells) and that correspondingly these pairs
separate and recombine during reproduction so that each parent gives half their genes to their
offspring.

















(1 mark)
Identify the correct answer by circling.
Which of the following is not part of Darwins theory:

a) Selective pressure
b) Natural selection
c) The Law of Segregation
d) Divergent evolution