24/05/2024

Inheritance and
Genes
LO: to be able to revise for the upcoming test which is
tomorrow
 Fertilisation summarised
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46 chromosomes
in a fertilised
egg
Egg

23 chromosomes
in here
Sperm

23 chromosomes
in here Fertilisation
 Basic genetics - Boy or Girl?
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Note that the Y

chromosome is “dominant”
and the X is “recessive”.
The Y chromosome dictates
the development of testes.

X Y X

“Allele”
“Phenotype”
XX XY
Girl Boy
Heterozygous Homozygous
 Boy or Girl?
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Mother

During sexual
reproduction,
children
inherit two
alleles of each
gene (one from
each parent).

Son

Daughter
Father
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Genetic Diagrams
Here’s what happens (genetically) when an egg is fertilised:

Mother Father

xx xy
Equal (50%)
chance of
being a boy or
x x x y a girl

xx xy xx xy
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Another method – the “Punnett square”
Here’s another way of drawing it:

Father

Mother x y
x
x
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Key words
Genotype
• This allele determines the development of a
Phenotype characteristic
• The characteristic caused by the genotype
Allele • This allele will determine a characteristic only if
there are no dominant ones
Dominant • This word refers to a pair of chromosomes being
made of two different alleles of a gene
Recessive • The genetic make up in a nucleus
• This word refers to a pair of chromosomes being
Homozygous made of two of the same alleles of a gene
• An alternative form of a gene
Heterozygous
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Eye colour
In eye colour the brown eye allele is dominant, so we call it
B, and the blue eye is recessive, so we call it b:

BB Bb bb

Homozygous Heterozygous Blue-eyed parent

brown-eyed brown-eyed
parent parent

What would the offspring have?


Eye colour
Example 1: A homozygous
brown-eyed parent and a blue-
eyed parent:
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Example 2: 2 heterozygous
brown-eyed parents

Parents: BB X bb Bb X Bb

Gametes: B B b b B b B b

(FOIL)

Offspring: Bb Bb Bb Bb BB Bb bB bb

All offspring have brown eyes 25% chance of blue eyes

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Eye colour
Example 3: A
heterozygous Bb bb
brown-eyed
father and a Equal (50%)
blue-eyed chance of
mother: being either
B b b b brown eyed or
blue eyed.

Bb Bb bb bb

Note – in reality, characteristics like this are usually depend

on the instructions of multiple genes and other parts of the
genome.
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Another method – the “Punnett square”
Example 3: A heterozygous brown-eyed
father and a blue-eyed mother:

Father

Mother B b
b Bb bb
b Bb bb
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Example questions
1) In mice, white fur is dominant. What type of offspring
would you expect from a cross between a heterozygous
individual and one with grey fur? Explain your answer with a
genetic diagram.

2) A homozygous long-tailed cat is crossed with a homozygous

short-tailed cat and produces a litter of 9 long-tailed kittens.
Show the probable offspring which would be produced if two
of these kittens were mated and describe the characteristics
of the offspring (hint: work out the kitten’s genotype first).
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Inherited diseases
1) Cystic fibrosis – a disorder or cell membranes. It’s caused
by recessive alleles so both parents need to be “carriers”:

Ff X Ff

2) Polydactyly – a condition where a person has extra fingers

or toes. It’s caused by a dominant allele so can be passed on
by a parent who already has it:

Pp X pp

Embryos can be screened for alleles that cause these

diseases before birth. Do you think this is right?
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Family Pedigree Charts
Consider the following chart of the offspring and
grandchildren between two polydactyly carriers:

Key:
= male

= female

= p allele

= P allele

Q. Describe the genotype and the phenotype of each

of the grandchildren. Also, which member of this
family has got polydactyly?