BIO F111

Ch 9: Patterns of Inheritance

Chapter 9: Patterns of Inheritance

What is inherited?
How is it inherited?
What is the role of chance in
heredity?

Early theories

Theory of Preformation
Single parent
contributes most
Blending
Permanent mixing
of traits

Historical puzzle of Inheritance

Variation is widespread in nature

Resemblance within families
Reappearance of traits

 Can humanity be improved?

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 Genetics is the scientific study of

heredity.

The laboratory of
Gregor Mendel+
Pea garden

Gregor Mendel worked in the 1860s and argued

that:

parents pass on to their offspring

discrete heritable factors,
genes are responsible for inherited
traits, and
genes retain their individual identities
generation after generation.

A character is a heritable feature

that varies among individuals.
A trait is a variant of a character.

Figure 9.4

Dominant

Recessive

Flower
color
White

Flower
position

Seed
shape

Recessive

Inflated

Constricted

Green

Yellow

Tall

Dwarf

Pod
shape
Purple

Seed
color

Dominant

Axial

Terminal

Yellow

Green

Round

Wrinkled

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Pod
color
Stem
length

Figure 9.3-s3

Removed
stamens
from purple
flower.

Stamens
Parents
(P)
Carpel

Transferred pollen from

stamens of white flower
to carpel of purple flower.
Pollinated carpel
matured into pod.

Planted seeds
from pod.
Offspring
(F1)

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 Does reciprocal cross yield similar

results?

 Mendel performed a monohybrid

cross between purebred (truebreeding) parent plants (P) and
found that the F1 plants all had
purple flowers.

Figure 9.5-s3

P Generation
(purebred
parents)
Purple
flowers

White
flowers

F1 Generation

All plants have

purple flowers
Fertilization
among F1 plants
(F1 F1)

F2 Generation

3
4

of plants
have purple flowers
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1
4

of plants
have white flowers

 Mendels Conclusions:
1. Presence of alternative versions
of genes (alleles).

2. For each inherited character, an

organism inherits two alleles,
one from each parent;
homozygous or heterozygous
conditions.

3. Dominant and recessive alleles

Figure 9.7

Homologous
chromosomes

Gene loci

Genotype:

PP

aa

Bb

Homozygous
for the
dominant allele

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Dominant
allele

Homozygous
for the
recessive allele

Recessive
allele

Heterozygous
with one dominant
and one recessive
allele

4. The two alleles for a character

segregate (separate) from each
other during the production of
gametes.
Law of segregation.
(Phenotype vs genotype)

Figure 9.6-2

F1 Generation
(hybrids)
Purple flowers
All Pp

Alleles
segregate
Gametes

1
P
2

1 p
2

Sperm from F1 plant

F2 Generation
(hybrids)

PP

Pp

Pp

pp

Punnett
Square

Eggs from
F1 plant

Phenotypic ratio Genotypic ratio

3 purple:1 white 1 PP:2 Pp:1 pp

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Food for Thought

Are gametes pure w.r.t. a given

trait?
Does blending occur?

 What is the probability of each of the

following sets of parents producing the
given genotypes in the offspring?
Parents

Offspring

1. AA x aa

Aa

2. Aa x Aa

Aa

3. Aa x Aa

aa

 Is there a molecular basis for

Dominance-recessive concept?

A dihybrid cross is the mating of

parental varieties differing in two
characters.
What would result from a dihybrid
cross?

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 Thus, the inheritance of one

character has no effect on the
inheritance of another.
This is called Mendels law of
independent assortment.

 How can the genetic makeup of F1

individuals be tested?

A testcross is a mating between an

individual of dominant phenotype
(but unknown genotype) and a
homozygous recessive individual.

Figure 9.10

Testcross

B_

Genotypes

bb

Two possible genotypes for the black dog:

BB

Gametes

B
b

Offspring

Bb

or

Bb
All black

Bb

bb

1 black : 1 chocolate

Important Point

Wild-type traits (most common in

nature in a population) are not
necessarily specified by dominant
alleles.

 How to determine genotypes for

humans?

Symbols used in Pedigree Charts

Pedigree Analysis
The given pedigree shows individual II-2
affected with a rare recessive trait. Let A and
a represent the dominant and recessive
alleles.
I
2

II
1

 (a) What are the genotypes of the

different individuals?
(b) What is the probability of an
unaffected offspring (e.g. II-3) being
a carrier of the a allele?

Human Disorders Controlled by a Single Gene

Some human genetic disorders are

known to be inherited as dominant
or recessive traits controlled by a
single gene, located on autosomes.

Table 9.1

Phenylketonuria (PKU) phenotype

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