CONCEPTS OF BIOLOGY

Chapter 8 PATTERNS OF INHERITANCE

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FIGURE 8.2 – MENDELIAN GENETICS
• Johann Gregor Mendel set the
framework for the study of genetics.
• Used statistics to analyze data
• Formulated basic genetics rules
known as Mendel’s Laws.
• 1866
• His research disregarded until 1900

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FIGURE 8.1 – GARDEN PEAS

• Experimenting with thousands of garden peas, Mendel uncovered the fundamentals

of genetics. (credit: modification of work by Jerry Kirkhart)
• This plant was his choice as a model organism – an organism used for research that
applies to other organisms

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GARDEN PEAS

• Fertilization = pollen (male) + ova (female)

• Cross-fertilization – between 2 plants (pollen from one and
ova from the other)
• Self-fertilization – within the same plant’s flower (since they
are hermaphrodite)
• As a result of this plants were having pure offspring
(manifesting only 1 feature all the time throughout
generations)  hence called true-breeding organisms
FIGURE 8.4 – PEAS TRAITS

• Mendel identified seven pea plant characteristics.

• Each characteristics has two variants.

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MENDEL EXPERIMENTS

• Parental Generation (P) – the first-generation of plants used to

cross
• First-generation offspring (F1) – babies of P
• Second – generation offspring (F2) – babies of F1

• Mendel’s experiment:
• P – true-breeding plants (violet x white flower) were cross-
fertilized
• F1 – all offspring were Violet
• F1 – allowed to self-fertilize
• F2 – mostly violet & some white
 MENDEL EXPERIMENTS - FIGURE 8.3
• Mendel’s process for performing
crosses included examining flower
color.

• F1 – all plants VIOLET;

• Question: is white transmitted
from the white P parent to F1
or not
• Answer: allow F1 self-crossing
(!) and check F2 plants
• Result: some F2 plants have
WHITE flowers
• Conclusion: white is
transmitted to F1 plants but it is
not showing

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MENDEL EXPERIMENT

• Violet vs. White

• Traits that can mask/hide other traits  dominant
• Traits that can become latent (or hidden)  recessive

• Each trait is related to an heritable factor inside of our body (i.e.

DNA)
• Today heritable factors are known as GENES
• And their variants known as ALLELE
• dominant vs recessive genes/alleles
LAW OF PAIR OF FACTORS

• Law of pair of factors: for each feature we inherit two heritable

factors (alleles), one from each parent.
• There are only 3 Possibilities:
• Dominant, dominant
• Dominant, recessive
• Recessive, recessive

• Using standardized notations:

• UPPERcase letter - dominant allele - V
• Lowercase letter - recessive allele - v
• Dominant, dominant - VV
• Dominant, recessive - Vv
• Recessive, recessive - vv
GENOTYPE VS. PHENOTYPE

• Genotypes = the alleles/heritable factors in your DNA

• Homozygous dominant: VV
• Heterozygous: Vv
• Homozygous recessive: vv

• Phenotype = the observable features/traits in your body

• Dominant feature
• recessive feature
FIGURE 8.5 – PHENOTYPE VS. GENOTYPE

Y – yellow
dominant allele

y – green
recessive allele

• Phenotypes are physical expressions of traits that are transmitted by alleles.

• Capital letters represent dominant alleles and lowercase letters represent recessive alleles. The
phenotypic ratios are the ratios of visible characteristics.
• The genotypic ratios are the ratios of gene combinations in the offspring, and these are not
always distinguishable in the phenotypes.

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LAW OF DOMINANCE

Law of dominance: a heterozygous genotype will express the

dominant allele in the phenotype (recessive feature will stay hidden);
see yellow row in the table.

Genotype Phenotype

VV Dominant

Vv Dominant

vv Recessive
FIGURE 8.6 – LAW OF DOMINANCE
• The allele for albinism, expressed
here in humans, is recessive.
• Both of this child’s parents carried the
recessive allele.
• However, the parents expressed only
the dominant allele in their phenotype

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 FIGURE 8.5 – LAW OF SEGREGATION

Y – yellow
dominant allele

y – green
recessive allele

• The only explanation for having green (recessive) feature in offspring starting with yellow
parents was to separate the recessive y from the dominant Y allele (!)
• Otherwise, based on Mendel’s law of dominance the green progeny will never occur in
offspring

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LAW OF SEGREGATION

• Law of segregation: the pair of alleles we inherit from our parents

(see law of pair of factors) have to separate/segregate so that
each allele goes in different sex cells (gametes);
• The cellular basis for explaining this law is the process of
MEIOSIS – where the paternal homolog separates from maternal
homolog in the anaphase I.
• Remember, an allele/gene is carried on a chromosome, so when
homologous chromosomes separates then the alleles separate.
FIGURE 8.7 – LAW OF SEGREGATION

• The first division in meiosis is shown.

• Homologous chromosomes separates in Anaphase-I: each will go in
different daughter cell (big red chromosome in the top daughter cell & big
blue chromosome in the bottom cell)

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MONOHYBRID CROSS
• Monohybrid cross – a cross between organisms different by one
trait
• Punnett square – used to show probabilities of inheritance for traits
• How to build a Punnett square:
• Separate the alleles of each parent into different gametes:
one allele per gamete
• Add the gametes on the side and top of the square
• Each allele goes in the squares: Parent: Aa
• top alleles in each column
A a
• side allele in each row

a Aa aa
Parent: aa

a Aa aa
FIGURE 8.9 – INHERITANCE CHANCE
This Punnett square shows the cross between
plants with yellow seeds and green seeds. The
cross between the true-breeding P plants
produces F1 heterozygotes that can be self-
fertilized. The self-cross of the F1 generation
can be analyzed with a Punnett square to
predict the genotypes of the F2 generation.
Given an inheritance pattern of dominant–
recessive, the genotypic and phenotypic ratios
can then be determined.
25% 25%

25% 25%

Chance to inherit yellow color:

-in F1 generation: 100%
- In F2 generation: 75%

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DIHYBRID CROSSES

• Dihybrid crosses – crosses between organisms different by 2 traits

so you can follow both features’ inheritance.

• Examples: - seed color & seed shape

• Punnett square:
- remember to separate alleles (law of segregation !)
- Each gamete will have two alleles (!)
- No alleles of the same gene should be in same gamete
- Gametes from a parent with the genotype YyRr:
- YR, Yr, yR, yr
FIGURE 8.10 – DIHYBRID CROSS & PUNNETT SQUARE

A dihybrid cross in pea plants involves the genes for seed color and texture. The P cross
produces F1 offspring that are all heterozygous for both characteristics. The resulting
9:3:3:1 F2 phenotypic ratio is obtained using a Punnett square.

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LAW OF INDEPENDENT ASSORTMENT

• Law of independent assortment: genes will segregate independent

of each other into gametes.
- Can be shown by a dihybrid crosses.
- Dependency means: one allele depends on the other allele
when segregates forming gametes.
- Example: if Y allele depends on R then the parent YyRr will
only have YR & yr gametes
- Independency means: one allele do not depend on any
other allele, so they just combine randomly, and all possible
combinations are possible.
- Example: for YyRr parent the gametes are YR, Yr, yR, yr (like
you have seen in the dihybrid Punnett square)

• Cellular basis explanation for this law is the random assortment of

the chromosomes in metaphase-I.
FIGURE 8.11 – RANDOM ASSORTMENT

The random segregation of the chromosomes into daughter nuclei that happens during
the first division in meiosis can lead to a variety of possible genetic arrangements.

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EXCEPTIONS FROM MENDELIAN GENETICS

• Some genes do not follow Mendel’s law of inheritance.

• These are non-mendelian genetics inheritance patterns:
• Incomplete dominance
• Codominance
• Multiple alleles
• Sex-linked features
• Epistasis
FIGURE 8.17

The process of crossover, or recombination, occurs when two homologous

chromosomes align and exchange a segment of genetic material.

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