KS3 Biology

9A Inheritance
and Selection
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 Contents

9A Inheritance and Selection

Types of variation

Causes of variation

Variation investigation

Selective breeding

Summary activities

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 Family characteristics
What characteristics have been passed on in this family?

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 Inherited characteristics
The members of this family tree are related and so
they share certain similar characteristics.

Shared family characteristics are inherited from parents.

So why don’t all family members look exactly alike?

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 Different types of variation
People are similar, but not identical, to their parents or each
other. The differences in a species are called variation.

Variation can come about for two reasons. What are they?
1. People inherit characteristics from both of their parents
and each person gets a different combination of features.
This is called inherited variation.
2. Other characteristics are affected a person’ surroundings.
This called environmental variation.
Which features are environmental and which are inherited?

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 Variation – environmental or inherited?

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 Contents

9A Inheritance and Selection

Types of variation

Causes of variation

Variation investigation

Selective breeding

Summary activities

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 Inherited characteristics only?
Deciding whether a characteristic is inherited or
environmental can cause a lot of discussion.

Scientists have now decided that only four features are

truly inherited and not affected by the environment at all.
What are the four truly inherited characteristics?
natural eye colour
natural hair colour
blood group
some inherited diseases
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 From a cell to DNA

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 Fertilization and cell division – animation

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 Identical twins – animation

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 Non-identical twins – animation

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 What causes other features?
Is nose shape an inherited or
environmental characteristic?
The shape of this person’s nose
is just like their mum’s nose.
However their nose was broken
and ended up with a kink in it.
So, the initial nose shape was
inherited, but over time it has
been affected by the environment.

Apart from eye colour, natural hair colour, blood group and
some inherited diseases, all other features are caused by a
mixture of inheritance and environmental factors.
What environmental factor might affect skin colour?
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 Variation summary
Variation in humans can be due to inherited factors,
environmental factors or a combination of both factors:
Inherited variation
When humans reproduce via sexual reproduction, the
nuclei of the male sex cell and the female sex cell fuse.
This cannot happen the same way twice, which makes each
individual unique.

Environmental variation
Some features are due to the conditions in a person’s
surroundings. For example, accent is just affected by
environment but skin colour is due to both inherited and
environmental factors.

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 Contents

9A Inheritance and Selection

Types of variation

Causes of variation

Variation investigation

Selective breeding

Summary activities

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 Variation investigation – beefsteak tomatoes

Eric bought 50 beefsteak tomatoes for his restaurant.

The mass of each tomato was measured (in grams) and
the results are given in the following table.

78.5 108.3 111.3 102.1 94.4

113.2 100.2 95.7 109.7 113.5
83.2 106.4 102.1 99.8 102.4
118.1 105.6 112.7 103.8 89.2
110.8 105.2 112.6 93.8 88.9
99.6 109.4 99.8 109.4 108.8
84.8 91.9 97.1 91.7 111.8
98.4 97.5 109.0 92.1 99.2
100.4 98.6 103.7 109.3 104.6
102.3 87.4 97.3 119.3 96.1

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 Variation investigation – beefsteak tomatoes

The masses of the beefsteak tomatoes can be made into a

frequency graph by counting how many tomatoes weigh
between 78 g and 82 g, 82 g and 96 g and so on.
Distribution of Mass of Beefsteak Tomatoes
frequenc
y

mass (g)
What does this graph show?
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 Variation investigation – plum tomatoes

Eric also bought 50 plum tomatoes from the local farm,

which were also weighed. The masses (in grams) of this
second type of tomatoes are listed in the table below:

40.0 62.2 65.3 58.1 73.0

74.4 61.3 71.0 48.1 71.6
59.0 63.9 64.4 44.9 59.8
60.5 71.1 62.0 64.4 65.7
56.3 55.7 50.2 55.6 52.3
59.4 68.3 61.8 54.7 59.4
49.7 71.9 71.2 46.5 42.0
58.6 60.6 63.7 64.5 59.6
43.1 58.2 60.1 68.3 72.5
57.2 63.1 48.5 64.5 47.7

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 Variation investigation – plum tomatoes

The masses of the plum tomatoes can be displayed in a

frequency graph by counting how many tomatoes weigh
between 40 g and 44 g, 44 g and 48 g and so on.
Distribution of Mass of Plum Tomatoes
frequenc
y

mass (g)
What does this graph show?
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 Variation investigation – comparing results

Compare the frequency graphs for the masses of the

beefsteak and plum tomatoes.

Distribution of Mass Distribution of Mass

of Beefsteak Tomatoes of Plum Tomatoes
frequenc

frequenc
y

y
mass (g) mass (g)

 Are there any differences between the two sets of

results?

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 Variation investigation – analyzing results

Other questions to consider when comparing

the frequency graphs for the masses of the
beefsteak and plum tomatoes.

 What can you say about the variation of mass within

each
species of tomato and the variation between the two sets
 of results?
Are there any other measurements of the tomatoes that
can
be easily recorded and would show a similar set of results
to the measurements of mass?

 Some quantities cannot be measured immediately but are

important to those who grow and those who buy a crop of
tomatoes, e.g. disease resistance and time taken to ripen.
Can you think of any more quantities like this?
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 Contents

9A Inheritance and Selection

Types of variation

Causes of variation

Variation investigation

Selective breeding

Summary activities

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 What is selective breeding?
Selective breeding is a process used to produce
different breeds of animals or varieties of plants that
have useful characteristics.
Farmers can choose individual
cows to mate in order to produce
a generation of cows that will
yield more milk.

Apple growers want to produce a type of

apple that is tasty and resistant to disease.
This can be done by crossing a variety of
apple known for taste with another variety
that shows strong resistance to disease.

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 Selective breeding – true or false?

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 Contents

9A Inheritance and Selection

Types of variation

Causes of variation

Variation investigation

Selective breeding

Summary activities

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 Glossary
 characteristics – The features of a living thing.
 environmental variation – Differences in
characteristics caused by surroundings or living conditions.
 inherited variation – Differences in characteristics
that are passed on from parents to offspring.
 natural selection – Passing on inherited
characteristics
that make living things best adapted for survival.
 selective breeding – Producing specific offspring
that have useful characteristics of both parents.
 variation – The differences in characteristics between
living things.
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 Anagrams

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 Multiple-choice quiz

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