GENETICS SUMMARY SHEET

Genes are on our DNA and are inherited equally from each of our
parents
We have a total of 46 chromosomes 23 from each parent
22 are somatic chromosomes the remaining one is a sex
chromosome
The X chromosome is the female the Y is male: Females are XX and
males are XY
The sex cells are called gametes each gamete has 1 copy of each
chromosome, therefore, 1 copy of each gene.
We represent alleles the different versions of any trait with a letter:
We have 2 of each allele one from each parent.
Capital letters represent the dominant allele:
The dominant allele will always show you only need to inherit 1
copy of this allele
Small letters represent the recessive allele
The recessive allele only shows if you have 2 copies of it you
need to receive it from both parents.
Gregor Mendel was an Austrian Monk who did genetics experiments on
garden peas. He described the basic inheritance patterns.
Law of Independent assortment the genes sort themselves into
the offspring independently of each other.
Law of segregation allele pairs separate leaving each cell with a
single allele for each trait.
If we represent a trait with the letter A
A would represent the dominant allele : a would represent the
recessive allele.
Genotype refers to the type of genes a person has :
Aa - Heterozygous
AA Homozygous dominant
aa homozygous recessive
Phenotype refers to what they look like
Eye color, for example: Brown eyes / blue eyes
We use a punnett square to calculate the probability of offspring
genotypes and phenotypes.
This is a cross of 2 heterozygous parents:
A

A
AA

a
Aa

Aa

aa

Offspring ratios are the percentage of offspring that would have each:
Genotype: 25% aa,, 25 %AA, 50 %Aa
Phenotype: 75% show dominant trait
25% show recessive trait
INHERITANCE PATTERNS:
Complete dominance One allele is dominant and the other is
recessive
Incomplete Dominance Neither gene is completely dominance a
heterozygous individual will have a blending of the two alleles
Example in chickens, the gene for feathers is incomplete
dominance a chicken with a gene for black and a gene for white
feathers will have bluish/grey feathers.
X linked (or sex-linked) genes that are carried on the Xchromosome.
Since males only have 1 X-chromosome, if they inherit a trait on
their X-chromosome, they will not be able to inherit the other
version since their other sex chromosome is a Y chromosome.
Males are more likely to show X-linked traits for this reason.
Females need to have this allele on BOTH X-chromosomes to
show them
Co-Dominance
Blood Typing
There are 4 blood types that relate to anti-bodies carried on the red
blood cells:
Neither A nor B is dominant, so a person can have blood type
AB
AA carries antigens for type B Blood
BB carries antigens for type A Blood
O (notated as ii ) Carries antigens for neither A and B
(a person with A and O would be notated as Ai a person with B
and O would be
notated as Bi )
AB - Carries antigens for both A and B
Pedigrees show us the inheritance pattern through several
generations of a family. Using the phenotype, we can piece together
likely genotypes of both offspring and ancestors