Heredity and Evolution

 The study of heredity and variation is known as genetics.

 Heredity is defined as the transmission of characteristics from parents to offspring.
 The differences in characters of parents and offspring is known as variation.
There are two types of variation- somatic variation and gametic variation.
Somatic variation:
 It occurs in the somatic cell of the body.
 They are not inherited or transmitted in the next generation.
 So, they are also known as acquired traits.
Gametic variation:
 It occurs in the germ cells of the body.
 They are inherited by the next generation.
 So, they are known as inherited traits.
Importance of variations
 It is the basis of heredity.
 It is the basis of evolution also.
 It increases the chances of the survival of the organism according to the
changing environment.
Accumulation of variations:
• The significance of a variation shows up only if it continues to be inherited by the
offspring for several generations.
• The great advantage of variation to a species is that it increases the chance of its
survival in a changing environment.
• For example
If a bacterium produces two bacteria by asexual reproduction & one of the two
bacteria has variation to tolerate a little higher temperature than the other one.
• Now this variation will go on accumulating in the offspring of successive
generations of this bacterium & this will ultimately give rise to a variant of
bacteria that will be highly heat resistant.
Few terms:
1. Chromosome:
 Chromosomes are the genetic material present in all the cells.
 They are present in the nucleus of a eukaryotic cell (cell having a
membrane-bound nucleus).
 Every cell has 23 pairs of chromosomes & they are a thread-like structure.
 Each chromosome of a eukaryotic cell contains DNA, RNA, and associated
proteins, known as histone proteins.
 They are responsible for the hereditary traits and passed from parents to
offspring from one generation to another.
 Every chromosome contains a large number of genes.
2. Genes:
 A gene is a section of DNA that is involved in carrying information for a
particular trait.
 
They are functional units of heredity and are made of DNA.

Genes are responsible for heredity.

This is the reason why we all have similar characteristics of both the
parents like the pigmentation of the eye, hair colour, etc.
 There are about 29 to 30 thousand genes in every cell of the human body.
3. Dominant & recessive Genes:

Genes for controlling the same characteristic of an organism can be of 2 types: dominant & recessive.

The gene which decides the appearance of an organism in the presence of an alternative gene is known as a
dominant gene.
The gene which can decide the appearance of an Organism only in the presence of another identical gene is called
recessive gene.
The dominant gene is represented by a capital letter and the corresponding recessive gene is represented by small
letter.
For example: The dominant gene for tallness is ‘T’ whereas for dwarfness it is ‘t’.

Each gene consists of 2 alleles, 1st from mother and 2nd from father.
Allele is one of different types of gene.
Example: height (dwarf & tall).
These alleles can either be recessive or dominant.
If one gene is dominant & one is recessive then, the dominant gene will be expressed but recessive will be
not be expressed.
Alleles:
 Genes are responsible for the development of the DNA structure and all the
genetic traits that a human body has.
 It is known as the most basic and functional unit of heredity.
 Every human carries two copies of each gene.
 It is known as an Allele.
 One allele is carried out from each parent.

Mendel and his contribution to Genetics

 G.J. Mendel started his work on garden peas.
 He was known as the Father of genetics.
 He had chosen seven pairs of contrasting characters-
The reason for choosing garden pea for the experiment was-
 Short life cycle
 A Large number of seeds produced
 Self-pollination
 Several contrasting characters can be found

Mendel Laws
Law of Dominance:
 If the two alleles differ, then.
  one, the dominant allele, determines the organism’s appearance.
 The other, the recessive allele, has no noticeable effect on the organism’s
appearance.

Law of Segregation:
 The two alleles for a heritable character separate (segregate) during gamete
formation and end up in different gametes.
Law of Independent Assortment:
 Each pair of alleles segregates independently of other pairs of alleles during
gamete formation
Genotype & phenotype
The human genetic composition could be found by their genotype.

Example: pure tall [TT] or hybrid tall [Tt]

Organisms that look same do not have the same genotype. Genotype can be determined by biological tests.

The phenotype is determined by an individual’s visible trait.

For instance, hair colour or type, eye colour, body shape, and height (tall or dwarf).
It depends on the genotype but also influenced by the factors in the environment.
𝐅𝟏 𝐠𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 & 𝐅𝟐 𝐠𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧
 When 2 parents cross (or breed) to produce progeny (offsprings),
 Their progeny is called first filial generation or 𝐹1 𝑔𝑒𝑛𝑒𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛.
 When the first-generation progeny cross or breed among themselves to produce
second generation progeny, this is called second filial generation or 𝐹2 𝑔𝑒𝑛𝑒𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛.

Monohybrid inheritance (law of segregation)

• Mendel first crossed pure-bred tall pea plants with pure-bred dwarf pea plants
and found that only tall pea plants were produced in the first generation or F1
generation.
• Conclusion:
• The F1 generation showed the traits of only one of the parent plants:
tallness, which is the dominant trait.
• And the other trait which is suppressed by the dominant trait in the f1
generation is called recessive trait which is dwarf.
• Mendel then crossed the tall pea plants of the F1 generation and found that tall
plants and dwarf plants were obtained in the second generation (F2
generation) in the ratio of 3:1 (three fourth plants were tall and one-fourth
plants were dwarf).
• Mendel concluded that the dwarf trait of the parent pea plant which has
seemingly disappeared in the first-generation progeny reappeared in the
second generation.
According to Mendel’s first law of inheritance:
• The characteristics (or traits) of an organism are determined by genes which
occur in pairs.
• Only one of a pair of such factors can be present in a single gamete.
Dihybrid inheritance (law of independent assortment)
 In a dihybrid cross experiment, Mendel considered two traits, each having two
alleles.
 He crossed wrinkled-green seeds and round-yellow seeds and observed that
all the first-generation progeny (F1 progeny) were
round-yellow.
 This meant that dominant traits were the round shape and yellow colour.
 He then self-pollinated the F1 progeny and obtained 4 different traits.
 4 different traits were:
wrinkled-yellow
round-yellow
wrinkled-green seeds
round-green
 These were present in the ratio 9:3:3:1. This is phenotype ratio.

F1 generation F2 generation
Mendel’s law of inheritance
In the inheritance of more than one pair of traits in a cross simultaneously, the factors
responsible for each pair of traits are distributed independently to the gametes.
Sex Determination
 Sex determination is used to define the sex of the offspring.
 Humans have 23 pairs of chromosomes.
 Out of these 23 pairs, only one pair is the ‘Sex Chromosome’, which actively
takes part in the process of sex determination.
 Both males and females carry two sets of sex chromosomes.
 Male has one X and one Y (XY) sex chromosome in which both are active
 Female has both X (XX) sex chromosome in which one is active.
 The XY sex-determination system is found in humans, mammals, in some insects,
and in few plant species.
 All children will inherit an X chromosome from their mother, despite whether
they are a boy or girl.
 Thus, the sex of the children will be determined by the type of chromosome
inherited from their father.
 A child who inherits Y chromosome from father will be a boy and who
inherits X chromosome will be a girl.

Blood group
1. Our RBCs carry antigens and the ability to produce these antigens is determined
by genes inherited from parents.
2. So, genotypes determine the blood groups in the child.
3. ABO blood group system is found in humans.
4. In this system, there are three alleles present.
5. IA forms the A antigen, IB produces the B antigen, and IO produces neither
antigen.
6. IA and IB are codominant genes which means when both genes are present
both antigens (A and B) will be formed so the blood group will be AB.
7. IO is a recessive allele and produces blood group O when both alleles (I O and IO)
are present.
8. So, there are 6 combinations of genotypic makeup resulting in children from the
mentioned phenotypes.
9. So, a child can have different blood types from his/her parents.
Genotype Blood group
𝑨 𝑨
𝑰 𝑰 A
𝑨 𝑩
𝑰 𝑰 AB
𝑰𝑨 𝑰𝑶 A
𝑩 𝑩
𝑰 𝑰 B
𝑩 𝑶
𝑰 𝑰 B
𝑶 𝑶
𝑰 𝑰 O
Principle of Mendelian inheritance
Law of segregation: The two alleles for each gene are placed in different gametes.
Law of independent assortment: The inheritance of one gene does not affect the
inheritance of other gene.
Law of dominance: When 2 different alleles are present, only one is dominant and will
be expressed.

Q. A man having blood Group A marries a woman having blood group o and they have
a child. What will be the blood group of the child?
Answer:
The blood group of child depends on whether the blood Group A of man has gene
combinations 𝑰𝑨 𝑰𝑨 𝒐𝒓 𝑰𝑨 𝑰𝑶 because the mother's blood group has the gene combination
𝐼 𝑂 𝐼 𝑂 and 𝐼 𝑂 is recessive gene.
So, following are the possibilities.
Mother Father Child
𝑰 𝑶
𝑰 𝑶 𝑰 𝑰 (O)
𝑶 𝑶

𝑰 𝑶
𝑰 𝑨 𝑰𝑨 𝑰𝑶 (A)
Q. Can a child have different blood group then his or her parents?
Answer: yes, it is possible. Let's consider the following situation. In this situation the
blood group of father is A and its genotype is IA IO, whereas the mother's blood group
is B and its genotype is IB IO. So, the following are the situation possible.
Mother Father Child
𝑰 𝑶
𝑰 𝑶 𝑰 𝑰 (O)
𝑶 𝑶

𝑰𝑶 𝑰𝑨 𝑰𝑨 𝑰𝑶 (A)
𝑰𝑩 𝑰𝑶 𝑰𝑩 𝑰𝑶 (B)
𝑰𝑩 𝑰𝑨 𝑰𝑨 𝑰𝑩 (AB)

Acquired and inherited traits

 Acquired traits are those traits which a person develops during his lifetime.
 These are not inherited from one generation to another.
 An acquired trait is the character developed in an individual because of
environmental influence.
 Example:
o If we breed some mice, all the progeny of mice will have tails just like their
parents.
o Now, if we cut the tales of these first-generation mice surgically and breed
them, we will get new mice, all with full tales.
o Even after cutting the tails of mice for several generations, a tail less mice is
never born because the cut tail of mice is acquired trait.
 The inherited traits of an individual are determined by their genes.
 These are the traits that are inherited from the parents to the offspring.