POLYGENIC INHERITANCE

INTERACTIONS BETWEEN
GENES
 Polygenic inheritance

• When single genes affect on a character

 discontinous variation (categories)
• Most characters such as height or mass
and even eye colour, show continuous
variation
• May be due to an environmental influence
such as diet
OR it may be due to the interaction of
several genes.
 The
interaction
of two
genes
 Comb shape in chickens

• These can come in four shapes which are

controlled by two non-linked genes P and
R
• Each gene has two alleles, one dominant
(P and R) and one recessive (p and r)
• Crossing Pure breeding Rose type (ppRR)
with Peas (PPrr) type gives Walnut (PpRr)
as the F1
 Comb shape in chickens

An incestuous cross of the Walnut F1

produces all four types of comb in the F2

PR Pr pR pr
PR Walnut Walnut Walnut Walnut
Pr Walnut Pea Walnut Pea
pR Walnut Walnut Rose Rose
pr Walnut Pea Rose Single
 Comb shape in chickens

• What must be the genotypes for each of

these phenotypes?

Walnut ……………………..
Pea ……………………..
Rose ……………………..
Single ……………………..
 Comb shape in chickens

Walnut P_R_
Pea P_rr
Rose ppR_
Single pprr
 Unusual ratios

• Coat colour in mice is controlled by at

least two genes
• A, the Agouti or Mousy gene and C the
Expression of coat colour gene
• The recessive a allele give Black and the
recessive c allele gives Albino
• The cc genotype is said to be epistatic to
the A gene
• cc switches off the A gene.
 Coat colour in mice

Crossing two mice AaCc what ratio of offspring

are produced?
Do the Mendelian rations of 9:3:3:1 result?
AC Ac aC ac
AC
Ac
aC
ac
 Coat colour in mice

AC Ac aC ac
AC AACC AACc AaCC AaCc
Ac AACc AAcc AaCc Aacc
aC AaCC AaCc aaCC aaCc
ac AaCc Aacc aaCc aacc
 Coat colour in mice

AC Ac aC ac
AC Mousy Mousy Mousy Mousy
Ac Mousy Albino Mousy Albino
aC Mousy Mousy Black Black
ac Mousy Albino Black Albino
 Coat colour in mice

Phenotype Mousy Black Albino

(white)

Proportions 9/16 3/16 4/16

The interaction of three or more
genes
More genes interacting
= more variety in the offspring

• In the coat colour of mice the are several

genes interacting to produce a range of
different coat colours
• Three of these genes are A, B and C.
Mouse coat colour revisited

• The A gene controls the production of a small

yellow band near the end of each hair which
gives rise Agouti (mousy) coat
• The recessive allele gives Non-agouti
• The B gene give the ground colour Black
• The recessive allele gives Brown colour
• The C gene controls the expression of the coat
colour genes as a whole
• The recessive allele gives Albino.
 Mouse coat colour revisited

• Crossing pure breeding Wild Type (AABBCC) to

Albino (aabbcc) gives Wild type offspring in the
F1 (AaBbCc)
• The F2 produced from these gives 5 types of
coat colour:
Wild Type (“mousy” or agouti),
Black,
Chocolate,
Cinnamon,
Albino.
Mouse coat colour revisited
 Mouse coat colour revisited

What must appear in the genotypes of :

Wild type ………………….

Black ………………….
Chocolate ………………….
Cinnamon ………………….
Albino ………………….
 Mouse coat colour revisited

Wild type A_ B_ C_
Black aa B_ C_
Chocolate aa bb C_
Cinnamon A_ bb C_
Albino _ _ _ _ cc
The more genes that interact the greater the range
of phenotypes produced
This ultimately leads to a continuous distribution
of traits where one blends into another.
 Human skin pigmentation
• Initially this was thought to be controlled by
two genes P1 and P2
• These control the production of the protein
melanin

• P1P1P2P2 gives black skin

• p1p1p2p2 gives white skin

• Crossing these would lead to brown

• Crossing two brown skinned people would
lead to a range of possible skin colours.
 Human skin pigmentation

F1 Phenotype Brown X Brown

Genotype P1p1P2p2 P1p1P2p2
F2 P1P2 P1p2 p1P2 p1p2
P1P2
P1p2
p1P2
p 1 p2
 Human skin pigmentation

• This would produces a range of 5 different

shades with a normal distribution
• That is to say a bell shaped curve

• This does not fit with what is observed

• There are far more shades than this observed in
“black” and “white”
• Observations on the human population suggest
that it is controlled by four or more genes at
different loci.
Human height
Nature and nurture
A polygenic character typically shows:
• a continuous variation
• a normal (Gaussian) distribution
It may also be influenced by the
environment
• E.g. Skin colour and UV light
• E.g. Height and diet