3.2.

Inheritance and Variation of Traits

• 3.2.1. Scope: During sexual reproduction, each parent contributes half the
number of chromosomes (at random) to the offspring. Each chromosome
in a pair contains one copy of a gene (allele) inherited either from the
father or mother.
• 3.2.2. Scope: Each allele in a pair expresses protein and masks the effect
of another allele. The structure of a protein determines the traits of an
individual. This is the reason why one looks similar either to a father in
certain features and a mother in other features.

LO-1. Develop a model that explains the patterns of inheritance of

characters of an organism based on Mendel’s laws of inheritance.
 3.2. Inheritance and Variation of Traits
Question: Have you ever wondered why you looks like your parents?
▪ All the characteristics or traits that an offspring posses are all inherited from their
parents.
▪ The passing of characteristics from parents to offspring is called heredity.
▪ Inheritance is offspring receiving certain traits or characteristics from mother or
father.
Knowing Inheritance of common
traits
Traits Dominant Recessive
Ear lobe Hang freely Attached
Tongue Ability to roll Inability to roll
Dimple Presence Absence
Thumb Curved Straight
Eye colour Brown Blue
Handeness Right-handedness Left-handedness
 Chromosomes – the carriers of heredity
▪ Chromosomes are visible in the nucleus
during cell division. They bears genes
that codes the traits.
▪ Chromosomes vary in shape, size and
number in different species of plants and
animals. Each species has definite and
constant chromosomes number.
▪ In human beings, there are 23 pairs of
chromosomes.
▪ In human
nd
beings, the chromosomes from
1-22 pairs are identical and are called
as autosomes found in somatic cells.
▪ 23rd pair of chromosomes is different
and is called sex chromosomes
represented as XX for female and XY
for males.
▪ In male Y chromosomes is much shorter
and smaller than X chromosomes.
Human karyotype-Collection or image of chromosomes.
What determines the sex of the child?
 Genes and their alleles
▪ A gene is the basic unit of heredity, made up of
DNA. Genes are the segments of DNA that
determine our traits. The character in a body is
determine by the genes.
▪ Eevery genes has two alternative forms for a
character, producing different effects.
▪ The alternative forms of genes controlling a
character is called as alleles.
▪ Alleles are of two types:
1. Dominant alleles: that expresses its character in
offspring. It is denoted with capital letters.
Character expressed by dominant allele is called
dominant character.
2. Recessive alleles: that the dominant alleles mask
the expression of its character.
▪ Recessive alleles can only express their character in
absence of dominant alleles.
▪ It is denoted by lowercase (small) letters.
 Examples of dominant and recessive alleles:

▪ Dominant allele for a trait of brown eye

colour in human is represented by capital
letter ‘B”.
▪ Recessive allele for blue eye is represented
by small letter ‘b’.
▪ A true breeding brown eye colour will have
identical alleles ‘BB” and a true breeding
blue eye would have identical alleles “bb”.
▪ During gamete formation, each gamete
receives one copy of an allele.
Homologous chromosomes is a pair of chromosomes which are
physically alike in shape, length and position of centromere.
 Homozygous and Heterozygous conditions

- An individual who carries two copies of the same allele is homozygous.

‘BB’ homozygous dominant.
‘bb’ homozygous recessive.
- An individual who carries two different alleles for a certain gene is heterozygous.
‘Bb’ heterozygous dominant.
How are trait transmitted from parents to offspring?
❖ Genetic cross can be represented in
Punnett square or checker board.

Gametes B b

B BB Bb

b Bb bb

1. What will be the colour of eyes in the offspring having alleles Bb. Why?
2. What will be the colour of eyes in offspring having alleles BB and bb?
3. What is the genotype and phenotype?
4. Derive the genotypic ratio and phenotypic ratio for the above genetic cross.
5. Differentiate between homozygous and heterozygous?
 Punnett Square

Gametes B b

B BB Bb

b Bb bb

Parents = Heterozygous dominant for brown eye

Offspring:
1. Genotype: 1 BB, 2 Bb, 1 bb
Genotypic ratio = 1:2:1
2. Phenotype: 3 Brown eye (BB, Bb, Bb) and 1 blue eye (bb)
Phenotypic Ratio = 3:1
 Practice problem
1. In human being, tongue roller (R) is dominant over non-roller (r). A man
who is non-roller marries a woman who is heterozygous for tongue
rolling. What is the probability of this couple having a child who is a
tongue roller?
2. Hornless (H) in cattle is dominant over horned (h) cattle. A homozygous
hornless bull is mated with a homozygous horned cow. What will be the
genotype and phenotype of the first generation?
3. In tomatoes, red fruit (R) is dominant over yellow fruit (r). A plant that is
homozygous for red fruit is crossed with a plant that has yellow fruit.
What would be the genotype and phenotypes of the P1 and F1
generations?
4. If two of the F1 generation from the above cross were mated, what would
be the genotypes and phenotypes of F2
 Codominance & Incomplete dominance
1. The dominant alleles always mask the
recessive alleles but some times the two
alleles of character may be equally expressed
which is called codominance. Example: blood
group type AB is inherited in codominance
pattern.

2. Sometimes, none of the alleles express their

traits fully in the offspring and produce an
intermediate phenotype in hybrids called
incomplete dominance.

▪ Incomplete dominance seen in cross pollination

between red and white snapdragon plants. Pink
▪ Alleles for red is (R) that do not expressed fully
over the recessive allele white (r) and the
resulting offspring are pink.
▪ The genotypes are (RR) red. (rr) white and (Rr)
pink.
 Activity
1. This genetic cross shows the inheritance of handedness
in humans over three generations. The gene for
right-handedness (R) is dominant over the gene for
left-handedness (r). Therefore, for which individual is Rr
the most probable genotype?
A. Daughter 1
B. Father.
C. Grandfather.
D. Grandmother.
2. Which two individuals have identical genotypes for right-handedness ?
A. Mother and son.
B. Mother and father.
C. Daughter 1 and daughter 2.
D. Grandmother and grandfather.
1. Tashi and Pema are both heterozygous tall. The ratio of
inheritance in their children will be
A. 2:2
B. 2:3
C. 3:1
D. 3:2

2. What percentage of the offspring would have same

phenotype, in the genetic cross between “RR” and “rr”.
A. 25%
B. 50%
C. 75%
D. 100%
 Principles of Genetics
• Modern genetics began in the mid 1800s with the discovery of basic
principles of heredity by Gregor Mendel through his breeding
experiments using garden pea plant. His contribution to genetics and the
principle of genetics is called Mendelism.
• Read on the brief life history of Mendel and his discovery of the
principles of genetics (Mendelism) from the text?

• Mendel performed a series of experiment on a garden pea plant to study

its different traits. He had chosen the pea plant for his experiment. Why?
Because it contained a number of contrasting characters, out of which he
selected 7 characters. He found that the 7 contrasting characters had two
varieties or alternatives as shown in figure 7.2 on page 169 in the
textbook.
Why Mendel’s breeding experiment was successful with garden pea plant?

His experiments were successful because:

1. Many pure breeding varieties of pea plants were available in is place.
2. Pea plants has a short life cycle.
3. Pea plants show clear cut contrasting characters.
4. He was able to perform self crosses as flowers of pea plant undergoes
self-pollination.
5. He made complex problems so simple by studying the inheritance of only
one character at a time.
6. He maintained a proper statistical record of all the results that helped him
to derive numerical ratios of significance.
 Genetic Cross
▪ Genetic Cross: conscious breeding of two different individuals where the offsprings
carries a portion of genetic materials of both parents.
▪ There are two different types of genetic crosses:
i. Monohybrid cross: Crossing of plant differing in only one character resulting in
monohydrid.
e.g. genetic cross between Tall and dwarf stem.

i. Dihybrid cross: crossing of plant differing in two different traits resulting in

dihydrid.
e.g. genetic cross between seed colour and seed shape.
 Case I
✔ When two parents with genotypes TT and tt are crossed.
✔ Parent TT produces only one type of gamete (T).
✔ Similarly, parent tt also produces one type of gamete (t).
✔ These two gametes from two different parents fused to
form F1 generation with genotype Tt. All F1 offspring
(Tt) are tall because dominant gene T masked the
expression of recessive gene t.

✔Mendel derived his first law of inheritance that is the “Law of Dominance”
✔“Mendel’s Law of Dominance” states that when two contrasting alleles are present
together, only one is able to express itself, while the other remains suppressed.
✔Recessive allele will express only when in homozygous condition i.e. in absence of
dominant allele.
 Case II
✔ When F1 with genotypes (Tt) is self crossed, each F1 parent
produces two types of gametes that are T and t.
✔ During the gamete formation, alleles Tt of each parent
segregate or separate from each other as ‘T’ and ‘t’. F1
gametes fuse at random, and there are four possible
combinations.
✔ The four possible combinations are TT, Tt, Tt and tt. First three
combinations (TT, Tt, Tt) contain dominant genes and hence,
they are tall plants. The fourth combination (tt) contains no
dominant gene and hence, the plant is dwarf.
✔ The possible combinations of gametes can be clearly
represented by placing the gametes in a Checker board or
Punnett square.

Mendel’s law of segregation states that during the gamete (egg or sperm) formation, the
two alleles responsible for the trait separate or segregate from each other. Then, the
alleles for a trait recombine at the time of fertilization to form the genotype for the traits
of offspring.
1. Find out the genotpye, phenotype and their ratios in f2 generation of a monohybrid
cross between pure breed of round seed and wrinkled seed.
2. In peas, seeds may be round (R) or wrinkled (r). What proportion of the offspring in
the following crosses would be expected to be wrinkled?
a. RR x rr b. Rr x Rr c. Rr x rr
3. Suppose, in a pea plant ‘S’ allele codes for long stem and ‘s’ allele codes for short
stem. In the cross Ss X Ss, what percentage of the offspring would you expect to have
the same genotype as the parents?

4. Are dominant traits always more common than recessive traits? Support your answer
with reason.
5. Explain how characters, such as height, tongue rolling, earlobe, and eye colour are
inherited based on Mendel’s laws of inheritance.
6. Why is it such that a son would be a non-tongue roller even if parents are tongue
roller?
• Crossing involving two pairs of
contrasting characters.
• Crossing two pairs of contrasting
characters i.e., Round yellow
(RRYY) and green, wrinkle (rryy)
• Phenotypic ratio: 9:3:3:1
• In a dihybrid cross, the parents
carry different pair of alleles for
each trait. One parent carries
homozygous dominant allele,
while the other one carries
homozygous recessive allele. The
offsprings produced after the
crosses in the F1 generation are all
heterozygous for a specific traits.
1. In a pea plant, purple flower is dominant to white flower; and
axial flower position is dominant over terminal position. Cross
a pea plant which homozygous for a purple flower at axial
position with a pea plant with a white flower at terminal
position.

i. Predict the phenotype and genotype of the F1 offspring.

ii. Calculate the phonotypic ratio of the F2 offsprings if two
offsprings of the F1 generation are crossed with each
other.
Use Punnett square for the calculations.
 rd
3 Law of inheritance
• Mendel’s Law of Independent Assortment: states that when there are
two pairs of contrasting characters, the distribution of the members of
one pair into the gametes is independent of the distribution of the other
pair.