CHAPTER 4

HEREDITY

● Some important terms ::

● Genes:The functional unit of heredity is the gene.

In living creatures, each gene regulates one or more specific characteristics.

● HEREDITY:Heredity is the process through which an organism’s characteristics are

passed down from generation to generation.
Genes(which define the characteristics of an organism) carry out this process.

● Traits:Traits refer to any observable characteristic of an organism. There are two types
of traits: Acquired and inherited.

● Inherited traits are passed down from parents to offspring through genetic material in
the form of genes. For example, if both the parents have brown or black hair, the
offspring may inherit either brown or black hair or a combination of the two.

● Acquired Traits are the traits which are developed because of the surrounding
environments effect. These are not code via DNA.
● Genotype:The hereditary information of the organism is in the form of genes in the DNA
and remains the same throughout the life.
● Phenotype:The characteristics of an organism which are visible are known as
phenotypes.

● The work of Mendel and rules of inheritance of traits:

Gregor Johann Mendel, regarded as“Father of Genetics,” was an Austrian monk who
studied pea plants to better understand heredity.
● Mendel choose pea plants for his experiments because of the following reasons: (i) The
flowers of this plant are bisexual. (ii) They are self-pollinating, and thus, self and cross-
pollination can easily be performed. (iii) The different physical characteristics were easy
to recognize and study.(iv) Pea plants grow quickly and do not require much space.
● The 7 traits choosen by Mendel in pea plant listed below:
● Seed shape (R) – smooth or wrinkled
● Color of seed (Y) – yellow or green
● Color of flower (P) – purple or white
● Pods shape (I) – inflated or constricted
● Pods colour(G) – green or yellow
● Position of flowers (A) – axial or terminal
● Length of stem (T) – tall or dwarf

● Monohybrid Cross:A cross between two organisms that involves only one
character is referred to as a monohybrid cross.
 ● Mendel first crossed two plants that were true-breeding for different heights, one with tall
height and the other with short height. The height of the plant offspring was all tall. He
called this generation as F1 generation. Next, he crossed two of the F1 plants with each
other and observed that the resulting offspring, the F2 generation, had a 3:1 ratio of tall
to short plants. This meant that the trait for tall height was dominant over the trait for
short height.
● Dihybrid Cross:A cross between two organisms that involves two
characters is referred to as a Dihybrid cross.

Mendel chose two pea plant characteristics, seed color, and seed shape,
and crossed two true-breeding plants that had different alleles of both
traits. One parent had a round, yellow seeds (RRYY), and the other had
wrinkled, green seeds (rryy). The offspring, called the F1 generation, all
had a round, yellow seeds (RrYy), which showed that one allele of each
trait was dominant over the other.Mendel then crossed two of the F1 plants
with each other to create the F2 generation. He observed that the offspring
had a 9:3:3:1 ratio of seed types, with 9 plants having round and yellow
seeds, 3 plants having round and green seeds, 3 plants having wrinkled
and yellow seeds, and 1 plant having wrinkle

Laws of inharitance:
 ● Law of dominance: Also known as the first law of inheritance. In
organisms having contrasting traits, only one trait of the pair appears in the
F1 generation during the crossing. This trait is called a dominant trait while
the trait not expressed is called a a recessive trait.
● Law of segregation: states that traits for each pair of genes separate or
segregate from each other during gamete formation, so that each gamete
carries only one trait for each gene.
● Law of independent assortment: States that alleles for separate or
contrasting traits are passed independent of each other during gamete
formation. For example:Mendelian Dihybrid cross.
● Sex Determination: The sex of a newborn, varies among different
species, with each utilizing a unique approach. In some species,
environment influences the sex of their offspring implying genetic factors
do not exclusively determine sex.
● Human chromosomes are present in pairs, with one copy inherited from
each parent.
● 22 pairs of such chromosomes are called an autosomal chromosomes.
One pair of chromosomes that determines the sex of an individual is
known Sex chromosome.
● Women have XX chromosomes and Men have XY chromosomes(The y
chromosome is smaller than the X chromosome).
● The sex of a child depends on the chromosome they receive from their
father.
● Variation
Variation is the measure of the difference between individuals of the same species. Offspring is not
identical to parents, there exist some variations. Each individual in a population differs from the
others. Recombination and mutation are the main causes of variations. Sexually reproducing
organisms show great variation among individuals of a species .