PRINCIPLES OF

INHERITANCE

“THE CHILD IS THE

FATHER OF THE MAN”
Who do you look
like? Your mother or
your father?

If your father is good

in math, what is the
probability that you
are also good at it?
GREGOR MENDEL AND HIS
EXPERIMENTS ON PEAS
• Gregor mendel  Austrian monk
• Peas  can self fertilize (can you do that too?)
• (what do you think would be the traits of offspring of self
fertilization compared to the parent? )
• Trait  any characteristic that can be passed from parents to
offspring
• Pure bred vs hybrid
• Gene  using mendel’s idea, is the factor that controls trait
• Dominant trait  inherited trait that manifested in an organism
• Recessive trait  inherited trait that did not manifest in an
organism
MENDEL’S HYPOTHESES
• Each trait is controlled by something called a “factor” within
the organization
• Many factors have two or more forms
• One form of each factor is dominant over the other
• Each organism has two factors for each trait, one from the
mother and one from the father
• Each of the two factors separate when gametes form
• Gametes of individual contain only one factor for each trait
• During fertilization, the single factors are united to make a
pair in the offspring
• The two factors do not blend
MENDEL’S LAWS ON INHERITANCE
• Law of segregation  each pair of alleles segregate or
separates during meiosis.
Allele  two gene copies of the same trait
• Law of independent assortment  gene pairs segregate into
gametes randomly and independently of each other
GENETIC TERMINOLOGIES
• Big letter = for dominant allele; small letter = for
recessive allele
• Genotype  the actual genetic makeup of an organism
• Phenotype  the form of the trait that is observed or
that is manifested, in an organism
• Homozygous (for a particular trait)  an organism that
has two identical alleles for that particular trait.
• Example = pure bred
• Heterozygous  organism that has two non-identical
alleles for a trait
• Example = hybrid
WHY DO PLANTS OF THE SAME SPECIE
LOOK VERY SIMILAR WHILE ANIMALS DO
NOT?
 HYBRIDS
• Monohybrid crosses  a cross which considers only one trait at a time
• Dihybrid crosses  a cross which considers the inheritance of two traits at a time
• Testcross
• Is done to determine whether the individual is heterozygous or homozygous for a certain trait
• Individual with unknown genotype is bred to an individual with recessive trait.
• If ½ of offspring show recessive phenotype, the parent is heterozygous. If all offspring show
dominant phenotype = parent is homozygous
• Intermediate inheritance  incomplete dominance, codominance, multiple allele, and polygenic
inheritance
• Incomplete dominance  heterozygote shows a phenotype that is intermediate between two
homozygous phenotypes (looks blend)
• Codominance  both alleles in the heterozygote express themselves fully
• Multiple alleles  means there are three or more alleles for a trait in the population
• Polygenic trait  trait that is controlled by two or more gene pairs
• Pleiotropy  ability of a single gene to have multiple effects
• Penetrance  proportion of individuals who show phenotype that is expected from their genotype
• Expressivity the degree to which a particular gene is expressed in individuals showing the trait