Ch18: Genes and

inheritance
Key words: Gregor Mendel, dominant, recessive, genotype,
phenotype, homozygous, heterozygous, Punnett square
Mendel’s experiments
• Gregor Mendel was an Austrian monk who lived in the 19th century.
• He did many crossing breeding experiment with pea plants about genes and heritable
features
• He found that:
• Certain features were passed on from one generation to the next
• There were too alleles for each trait (like flower colour, pea shape, etc.), each allele in the pair
from each parent
• The two alleles in a pair are different forms of the same gene
• One allele may be dominant over the other, which is recessive
• Gametes with only one copy of the chromosomes have only one allele for each trait
Example of an experiment
Terms
• Genotype: two alleles of a gene
• Phenotype: actual feature that comes from the genotype
• Dominant allele and recessive allele
• Homozygous (two alleles of a gene are the same) and heterozygous (two alleles are
different)
• Dominant phenotype is a feature caused by the dominant allele. Its genotype could
homozygous dominant or heterozygous dominant
• Recessive phenotype is a feature caused by recessive alleles, and can only be
homozygous recessive genotype.
How to find out genotype: the testcross
• If a pea plant shows a tall stem, then it could have TT or Tt as its genotype
• Allow this plant to cross breed with recessive homozygous dwarf pea plant with tt
genotype
• Do your Punnett squares and you will see clearly how to interpret the results
• If F1 generation shows all dominant phenotype, you will know the parent in question must have TT
as its genotype
• If F1 generation shows half dominant phenotype and the other half recessive phenotype, you will
know the parent plant in question has Tt as its genotype.
Pedigree (family tree)
• Polydactyly is an inherited condition when a person develops an extra digit (finger or
toe) on the hands or feet
• Polydactyly is caused by a dominant allele (D)
• The recessive allele (d) leads to normal number of digits
• So if a person shows polydactyly,
his genotype can be either DD or Dd
• If he has normal number of digits,
he must have dd as genotype
• Now you work out the genotypes of
the people in this pedigree
Codominance
• When both alleles of a gene are expressed in the phenotype, we can these alleles
codominant
• The flower colour of snapdragon is a phenotype that is caused by codominant alleles
• Red flowers are a result of homozygous RR (R is allele for red flowers)
• White flowers are a result of homozygous WW (W is allele for white flowers)
• The heterozygous RW genotype will produce flowers of pink colour.
• Now you work out the flower colours of F1 generation between
• A red flower and a white flower
• Two pink flowers
Gender of humans
• In the human genome, one of the 23 pairs of chromosomes are sex chromosomes. Females
have XX and males have XY.
• In female gametes (eggs), the sex chromosome can only be X
• In the sperm, the sex chromosome can be either X or Y
• So the sex of a baby is only determined by the sperm, not the egg.
• Of the hundreds of millions of sperm delivered to a female’s vagina during intercourse,
roughly half contain X and the other half Y
• So there is an equal chance a baby may be a boy or a girl.
• Why do men, rather than women, tend to have colour-blindness?
• Look on the web and find out
• The allele for colour-blindness is on the X chromosome and is recessive. Because men only have one copy of
X chromosome (from mother), if that X chromosome carries the allele for colour blindness, that male will be
colour blind. If a woman has one X chromosome that carries the colour-blind allele, she may not develop
colour-blindness if her other X chromosome has a normal allele
Polygenic traits
• Many traits (phenotype) are determined by more than one gene, like the human skin
colour.
• The darkness (or fairness) of skin colour is determined by the amount of melanin (a
black pigment) contained in the skin
• A number of genes control the amount of melanin in the skin, therefore its colour.
• Darker skin is able to better protect against harmful UV radiation from the sun, which
is why your skin tend to become darker after long exposure to the sun, as your skin
produces more melanin to protect you
• But when the cells that produce melanin (melanocytes) divide out of control, you get
melanoma, a skin cancer.
• Melanin is also responsible for your black hair and dark iris of your eyes
• Other polygenic traits include height and body weight.