GENETICS

Dominant and Recessive Traits

The study of genes, heredity, and variation in living organisms

REVIEW: GENE VS. ALLELE
 GREGOR JOHANN
MENDEL 1822-1884
● “Father” of genetics
● Famous because of his work with pea
plants
● Tested over 5,000 plants!
● Mendel’s experiments with pea plants
confirmed rules of heredity.
o Today, the rules are known as
Laws of Mendelian Inheritance
(3)
● Mendel’s work was not recognized as
significant until the end of the 20th
century
MENDEL AND HIS PEAS:
EXPERIMENT
● Terminology of chromosomes
and genes, non-existence for
Mendel.
● Mendel described the basic
patterns of inheritance before the
mechanism for inheritance was
even discovered.
● Controlled reproduction of
plants and studied traits
expressed in offspring.
 MENDEL AND HIS PEAS:
EXPERIMENT DETAILS

● Cross pollinated plants to produce “pure breed” plants, which

means Mendel “interbred”
● Mendel has to keep cross pollinating until all offspring were
homozygous for the trait.
o 2 alleles for a trait are the same
o Sperm and egg each received the allele for pink flower color
● Did this with both alleles of a gene for flower color
o produced homozygous plants with pink flowers
o produced homozygous plants with white flowers
 MENDEL AND HIS
PEAS: EXPERIMENTAL
RESULTS FOR “F1”
GENERATION
• Flowers genotype: ? Mendel did
not know

• Flower phenotype: pink and

white crossed and all pink flowers
produced. How?

● Homozygous pink flower X Homozygous white flower

= all plants showed the color for pink flowers.

 MENDEL AND HIS
PEAS: EXPERIMENTAL
● All flowers pink, why no RESULTS FOR “F1”
white flowers? GENERATION
o Some alleles are
dominant (you can
physically see)Aa or AA
o Some alleles are
recessive (you cannot
physically see), aa
 F1 generation: heterozygous
Pp
 MENDEL AND HIS
PEAS: EXPERIMENT
● F2 generation produced the “F1” INDIVIDUAL
CROSSED WITH
following: ANOTHER “F1”
o 75% dominant trait INDIVIDUAL
expressed (¾)
o 25% recessive trait
expressed (¼)
● White flower showed up
because homozygous
recessive.
o “pp”
● Mendel’s F1 experiment with peas shows simple inheritance patterns
o Dominant alleles X recessive alleles
o Homozygous dominant X homozygous recessive
 All offspring 100% show dominant trait and all offspring are
heterozygous for trait
o Cross heterozygous dominant with heterozygous dominant then:
•75% show the dominant trait
•25% show the recessive trait
•25% are Homozygous Dominant
•50% are Heterozygous
•25% are Homozygous recessive

PHENOTYPIC RATIO 3:1

Key concept: Law of segregation states that two alleles (one 1. LAW OF
from each parent) coding for the same trait separate during SEGREGATION
meiosis
This separation,
or assortment, of
homologous
chromosomes is
random.
 2. LAW OF
INDEPENDENT
ASSORTMENT

● Key concept: inheritance

of one trait has no effect
on the inheritance of
another

● Example: Cat fur color

compared to cat tail
length
GENOTYPE VS. PHENOTYPE
 DEFINITIONS:
● An individual that is
homozygous-dominant for a
particular trait carries two copies
of the allele that codes for the
dominant trait. BB
● An individual that is
homozygous-recessive for a
particular trait carries two copies
of the allele that codes for the
recessive trait. bb
 PUNNETT SQUARES!

 A tool that helps to show all

possible allelic combinations of
gametes in a cross of parents
with known genotypes in order
to predict the probability of their
offspring possessing certain sets
of alleles.
E XA M PL E : 2 FRU I T FL I E S H E T E RO Z YG OU S
FOR EYE COLOR. (FF) CAPITAL F BEING
DOMINANT RED COLOR

Probable Genotype Results of

Offspring:
● FF, 1:4 or 25%
● Ff, 2:2 or 50%
● ff, 1:4 or 25%
Probable Phenotype Results of
offspring:
● Wild-type (Red) 75% or 3:4
and white 25% or 1:4
SPONGE BOB MONOHYBRID PUNNETT
S Q UA R E S
Widows Peak Hitchhiker’s Thumb