Mendel’s Laws of

Inheritance
 By the end of this session you will be able to understand:
Learning Objectives
1. Law of dominance

2. Law of segregation

3. Law of independent assortment

 Dean’s blood group is A and his brothers blood group is O
while his mother’s blood group is A. what could be the
Brain Teaser blood group of his father??
 Pre-assessment questions:

1. What is genetics?

Pre-assessment 2. What is phenotype and genotype?

What is genetics, heredity and variation…

• Genetics is the branch of life science that deals with the study of
heredity and variation.

• Heredity is the transmission of characters from parents to their

offsprings.

• Variation is the difference among the offsprings and with their parents.
 History
• Gregor Johann Mendel: He was an Austrian monk who discovered
the basic principles of heredity through experiments in his garden.

• He developed the principles of heredity and variation while studying 7

pairs of contrasting traits in a pea plant.

• Although his work was not recognised during his lifetime, it was latter
rediscovered by notable geneticists, botanists and biologists and his
studies began to be referred to as Mendel’s Laws.
 Terminologies

• Phenotype: The external appearance of an organism due to the

influence of genes and environmental factors.

• Genotype: The genetic constitution of an individual responsible for the

phenotype.

• Phenotypic ratio: The correct proportion of phenotype in population.

• Genotypic ratio: The correct proportion of genotype in population.

• Homozygous: The individual heaving identical genes in an allelic pair for a
character. Ex: TT, tt.

• Heterozygous: The individual heaving un-identical genes in an allelic pair

for a character. Ex: Tt.

• Dominant gene: The gene that expresses its character in heterozygous

condition.

• Recessive: The gene that fails to express its character in heterozygous

condition.
• Hybrid: The progeny obtained by crossing two parents that differ in
characters.

• Monohybrid: a hybrid that is heterozygous with respect to a specified

gene.

• Dihybrid: a hybrid that is heterozygous for alleles of two different genes.

• Back cross: The cross between F1 hybrid and one of its parents.

• Test cross: The cross between hybrid and its homozygous recessive
parent. It is used to identify the genotype of the hybrid.
 Mendel's Laws Of Inheritance

• Mendel Conducted hybridization (artificial pollination/ cross pollination)

experiment for 7 years 1856-1863 & proposed law of inheritance.
• He Applied statistical analysis & mathematical logic for biology problems
• His experiments had a large sampling size, which gave greater credibility to
the data that he collected.
• True breading pea plants were used.
• Mendel investigated pairs of opposite traits in the pea plant.
7 pairs of contrasting traits of pea plant
 Advantages Of Garden Variety Pea Plants
• Pure variety are available.

• Pea plants are easy to cultivate.

• Life cycle of plants are only few months. So that result can be got early.

• Contrasting trait are observed.

• Flowers are bisexual and normally self pollinated.

• Flowers can be cross pollinated only manually.

• Hybrids are fertile.

 Inheritance Of One Gene
• Inheritance of one gene can be explained by monohybrid cross.

• The cross between two parents differing in one pair of Contrasting character is
called monohybrid cross.

• Crossed tall & dwarf pea plants- Collected seeds & grew to generate first hybrid
generation/ Filial generation/F1

• F1 plants- Tall & none were dwarf.

• For other traits also- F1 generation resembled only one parent & trait of other
parent were not shown.
• Self pollinated F1 – Filial 2 generation/ F2
• F2 generation- 1/4th were dwarf & 3/4th tall- identical to parents
• F1 generation one parent trait shown & F2 both parent trait shown in the
ratio- 3:1 & no blending were seen
• Mendel proposed- Something is stably being passed to the next generation
through gametes ‘factors’ – genes
• Genes/factors- unit of inheritance, contain the information Required to
express particular trait.
• Genes which code for pair of contrasting trait- alleles
• Alphabetical symbols were used; T-Tall, t- dwarf
• Plants pair of alleles for height- TT, Tt & tt
• The terms TT or tt are known as genotype,
• Descriptive term tall or dwarf is known as phenotype
• Mendel found phenotype of heterozygote Tt of F1 was same as parent
with TT & proposed, in a pair of dissimilar factors one dominates the
other & hence called dominant (T) & recessive (t).
• The production of gametes by the parents, the formation of the zygotes,
the F1 and F2 plants can be understood from a diagram called Punnett
Square.
• It was developed by a British geneticist, Reginald C. Punnett.
• It is a graphical representation to calculate the probability of all possible
genotypes of offspring in a genetic cross.
Monohybrid cross
 Test Cross
The cross between hybrid and its homozygous recessive parent called test
cross. It is used to identify the genotype of the hybrid.
 Mendelian Laws Of Heredity

• Based on his observations on monohybrid crosses Mendel proposed

two general rules to understand inheritance in monohybrid crosses.
Today these rules are called the Principles or Laws of Inheritance:

• 1) Law of Dominance

• 2) Law of segregation
Law Of Dominance
• Characters are controlled by discrete units called factors.
• Factors occur in pairs.
• In a dissimilar pair of factors one member of the pair dominates (dominant)
the other (recessive).
• The law of dominance is used to explain the expression of only one of the
parental characters in a monohybrid cross in the F1 and the expression of
both in the F2 It also explains the proportion of 3:1 obtained at the F2.
Law Of Segregation

• It states that, ‘when a pair of factors for a character brought together in a hybrid, they
segregate (separate) during the formation of gametes.

• Alleles do not blend & both characters are recovered in F2 & one in F1

• Factors which is present in parents ,segregate & gametes receives only one of two
factors.

• Homozygous parent- one kind gamete.

• Heterozygous parent- two kind gamete each one have one allele with equal
proportion.
 Incomplete Dominance

• Correns discovered Incomplete dominance in Merabilis jalapa (4 o clock plant)

• It is also called partial dominance, semi dominance.

• The inheritance in which allele for a specific character is not completely dominant over other allele is
called Incomplete dominance.

• Snapdragon or Antirrhinum sp.- Cross between true breed red flower (RR) & white flower (rr), F1
generation- Pink (Rr) & after self pollination in F2 generation- 1 (RR) Red: 2 (Rr) Pink: 1 (rr) white

• Genotype ratio was same as Mendelian cross but Phenotype ratio different than Mendelian cross
 Co-dominance

• When both the alleles for a character are dominant and express its full character it is called co-
dominance.

• Example :- human blood group ABO

• Blood group in humans are controlled by 3 alleles of a gene I.

• They are IA IB and i.

• The ABO locus is located on chromosome 9.

• IA is responsible for production of antigen –A.

• IB is responsible for production of antigen –B.

• i does not produces any antigen.

• IA and IB are co-dominant and dominant over i.
• ABO blood grouping- multiple allele.
• Three alleles govern same character.
Example:
• Father’s blood group is A and mother’s blood group is B
• Possible blood group of the offsprings:
• Father’s genotype IAi ; Mother’s genotype IBi
 Inheritance Of Two Genes
• Mendel’s 3rd law or Law of independent assortment:
• The law states that
• When two pairs of traits are combined in a hybrid, segregation of one pair of
characters is independent of the other pair of characters’.
• Mendel’s 3rd law can be explained by dihybrid cross.
• Dihybrid cross: The cross between two parents, which differs in two pairs of
contrasting characters.
 Dihybrid cross

• Two characters are chosen for ex.

Seed shape: round(RR) & wrinkled(rr)

Seed colour: yellow(YY) & green(yy)

• Round and yellow seeds(RRYY) are crossed with wrinkled and green
seeds(rryy)

• F1 generation yields round and yellow seeds(RrYy)

• They were self pollinated and the results were as follows:-

• In the dihybrid cross the phenotypic ratio was:

• round, yellow: wrinkled, yellow: round, green :wrinkled, green

9 : 3 : 3 : 1

• Thus dihybrid cross proves that the segregation of one character is

independent of segregation of other
• Characters are controlled by discrete units called factors.

• Factors occur in pairs.

• In a dissimilar pair of factors one member of the pair dominates (dominant) the
other (recessive).

• When a pair of factors for a character brought together in a hybrid, they

segregate (separate) during the formation of gametes.

• When two pairs of traits are combined in a hybrid, segregation of one pair of
characters is independent of the other pair of characters.
 Assessment / Home work / Independent practice
1) Draw a punette square for a monohybrid cross between garden pea
flower color, and write the genotypic and phenotypic ratio.
2) Draw a punette square for a dihybrid cross between two characters of
garden pea,flower position and pod shape and write the ratio.
3) If the blood group of john is AB and his wife mary is O, what are the
possible blood groups of their off springs??
Learning Objectives Revisited

By the end of the session you have been able to Understand :

1. Law of dominance

2. Law of segregation

3. Law of independent assortment