MENDELIAN GENETICS – Observable Patterns of Inheritance

genetics- study of patterns of inheritance

inheritance – process by which traits are passed from parents to offspring

genes – discrete units of inheritance (segments of DNA which code for a particular protein)

locus – particular location of a gene on a chromosome (plural – loci)

alleles – alternative forms of a gene (for example, both genes might code for flower color – but
one may be for white and the other for purple)

Give an example of different alleles for the gene for eye color?

DOMINANT ALLELE – its effect masks the RECESSIVE allele

(A) capital letter – represents a dominant allele

(a) lower case letter – represents a recessive allele

homozygous dominant (homozygote) – 2 dominant alleles (AA)

homozygous recessive – 2 recessive alleles (aa)

heterozygous (heterozygote) – 2 different alleles (Aa) “hybrid”

phenotype – observable or expressed traits

genotype – the alleles – the genetic “make-up”

examples: In Sweet peas Purple is dominant for purple flowers, p is recessive for white flowers

given the following genotypes – what will be the phenotypes?

PP
Pp
pp

Types of crosses performed by Mendel: What was Mendel’s study organism?

MONOHYBRID CROSS

Parent generation (P) generation AA x aa

F1 generation (1st generation) = all offspring Aa

To get monohybrid cross, cross 2 individuals from the F1 generation to get the F2 generation:

Aa x Aa

Results in the possibility of ¼ AA, ½ Aa, ¼ aa (genotypes)

¾ of the dominant phenotype and ¼ the recessive phenotype

Use Punnett square (to be demonstrated on audio powerpoint) and given in fig 7.5

OK so work through the following questions

A tall pea plant is crossed with a recessive dwarf plant. What will the phenotypic and genotypic
ratio of the offspring be?

a) If the tall plant was TT? (homozygous dominant)

b) If the tall plant was Tt (homozygous recessive)

DIHYBRID CROSS

Refer to power point slides and fig 7.6 completed in class with seed shape and color to complete
the following problem.

A true breeding plant with yellow round seeds (RRYY) is crossed with a true-breeding plant
with green wrinkled seeds (rryy)

What is the phenotype of the F1 generation?

What is the genotype of the F1 generation?

What four types of gametes are formed by the F1 plants?

Construct a Punnett square to show the off-spring of the F2 generation (its ok if you just draw
this on a scrap piece of paper you do not have to put it in the work sheet just important that you
go through the motions of knowing how to fill the squares/boxes in)
List the phenotypes (ie what the plants looked like) and ratios found in the F2 generation

Ok repeat the above problem using the following

A true-breeding tall, purple-flowered pea plant (TTPP) crossed with a true-breeding dwarf,
white-flowered plant (ttpp)

What is the phenotype of the F1 generation?

What is the genotype of the F1 generation?

What four types of gametes are formed by the F1 plants?

Construct a Punnett square to show the off-spring of the F2 generation (its ok if you just draw
this on a scrap piece of paper you do not have to put it in the work sheet just important that you
go through the motions of knowing how to fill the squares/boxes in)

List the phenotypes (ie what the plants looked like) and ratios found in the F2 generation

Revisting Mendel’s laws (your text book does a good job of explaining this on page 122 and
123)
1) Law of segregation (i.e two allele of a gene are separated during sexual reproduction and up
in different gametes) this predicts how a single trait will be inherited as demonstrated in the
monohybrid cross

2) Law of independent assortment. When gametes form, the two alleles of any given gene on
one pair of homologus chromosomes separate /segregate out during meisos independently of
any two alleles of other genes on another pair of homologous chromosome. Mendel
demonstrated this with the dihybrid cross

I.e you can have gametes produced by a plant with yellow round seeds could be

RY or Ry or rY or ry.

If you did not get independent assortment then you would always get the two same alleles
segregating together e.g. always RY and ry, never Ry or rY
EXCEPTIONS TO MENDELIAN GENETICS

Mendelian traits are traits or characteristics controlled by single gene with dominant and
recessive alleles
We now know that not all traits are simply “dominant” or “recessive”. We also know that
sometimes there are more than 2 possible alleles within a population coding for a particular trait.
For other traits, there are more than one pair of alleles involved.

Some examples of exceptions to Mendelian Genetics:

1) INCOMPLETE DOMINANCE

In this type of inheritance, there are two different alleles, but neither is dominant. The phenotype
is intermediate or a “blended” trait

Example: If you cross red snapdragon with white snapdragons, you get all pink snapdragons.

To work these problems, let RR represent red and ww represent white. Therefore, when you
cross RR with ww, you get Rw which is pink.

Try crossing two pink individuals – what would be the resulting phenotype ratios:

2) CODOMINANCE

A pair of non-identical alleles results in the expression of both phenotypes.

Example: If you cross a dog with pink gums (pp) with a dog with black gums (PP) you will get a
dog with pink gums and black spots (Pp). If it had been incomplete dominance probably would
get grey/purple gum. If it was incomplete the Pp dog would have had black gums

So try crossing two individuals with spotted gums – what would be the resulting phenotype
ratios ?

Another example: In cattle, if you cross a white one (ww) with a “red” (really a reddish-brown
color RR) you get roan offspring(Rw). These are not pink! Instead if you examine the cattle
closely, you will see that there are both white hairs and red hairs present – resulting in a color
referred to as roan.
COMPLEX TRAITS

PLEIOTROPY

In pleiotropy, one pair of genes affects more than one phenotype

Example: eg the gene for “tameness” in foxes effects many genes that effect the foxes
appearance eg floppier ears, shorter tails and wider faces.see textbook for full explanation
(p139 .

Albinism – often will affect pigment of eyes, skin, and hair. Many times these individuals will
have other sight problems.(interesting example although I did not deal with this in class)

3) POLYGENIC INHERITANCE (ALSO CALLED CONTINUOUS VARIATION)

In this case, more than one pair of genes codes for a trait.

How many genes code for skin color in humans?

Another example of polygenic inheritance?: