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Genetics 2 PDF
Genetics 2 PDF
1 Understanding Inheritance
Gregor Mendel’s Experiments
-Mendel (1822-1884)
-was able to sort out the mystery of inheritance by breeding pea plants
-he chose to experiment with pea plants because they were available in many varieties and show many different traits
-a trait is a specific characteristic or feature exhibited by an organism (eg. flower colour)
-laws that Mendel developed formed the modern theory of inheritance
Pea Plants
-Mendel would start off with true-breeding plants
-true-breeding means that organisms exhibit the same traits generation after generation (pure breed)
-he would selectively fertilize a female gamete with a male gamete
-this process was called a cross—the fertilization of a female gamete of a specific genetic origin with a
male gamete of a specific genetic origin
-also referred to as cross-polination
The Results of True-Breeding
-Mendel chose to observe seven traits that were expressed in two distinguishable forms
-stem length (tall/short), pod shape (inflated/pinched), seed colour (yellow/green), seed shape (round/wrinkled),
flower position (axial/top), flower colour (purple/white) and pod colour (yellow/green)
-the true-breeding plants were called the P (parental) generation; the original organisms being crossed
-the offspring of the cross between the parents were called the F1 generation
-this cross was called a monohybrid cross (a cross of individuals that differ by one trait)—only one trait was being
monitored
-he decided to cross green-seed plants with yellow-seed plants
-resulted in only yellow-seed plants in the F1 generation
-after crossing the true-breeding plants, Mendel concluded that the off-spring will only exhibit one of the two traits
being crossed
Results of the F1 Crosses
-offspring of the F1 crosses were called the F2 generation
-he allowed the plants from the F1 to self-fertilize, then grew the seeds for the F2 generation
-he discovered that the trait that had disappeared in the F1 generation reappeared in the F2
-the green trait reappeared in the F2 generation
-the ratio of green to yellow seeds was 1:3
-this ratio was known as the Mendelian ratio
Law of Segregation
-he concluded that there are two hereditary alleles for each trait
-alleles are different forms of a gene
-although the offspring would inherit both alleles, only one of the traits would be evident
-this was called the dominant allele, the form of a trait that always appears when an individual has the allele for it
-in this case, yellow-seeds were dominant
-green-seeds were considered to be recessive; the form of a trait that only appears when an individual has two alleles
for it
-Mendel proposed the law of segregation—traits are determined by pairs of alleles that segregate during meiosis so
that each gamete receives one allele
-upon fertilization, each offspring contains one allele from each parent
-if the dominant allele for a trait is present, only the dominant form of the trait will be expressed
-for a recessive trait to be expressed, the individual must have two recessive alleles for that trait
Genotypes and Phenotypes
-alleles are representing by upper-case and lower-case letters
-dominant: upper-case
-recessive: lower-case
-the combination of alleles is called the genotype (genes)
-the expression of a genotype is called the phenotype (physical)
-if an individual has two dominant alleles—homozygous dominant
-two recessive alleles—homozygous recessive
-if an individual has two different alleles of a gene, they are heterozygous
Gene Therapy
-gene therapy is a technique aimed at treating genetic disorders by introducing the correct form of the defective gene
into a patients genome
-still in the experimental stage
-a copy of the normal gene is inserted into a vector, which acts as a carrier of the gene
-the vector is usually the DNA of a virus, since viruses can easily infect human cells
-once the normal gene is delivered to the cell, the correct protein is produced
-two significant obstacles face gene therapy; the type of vector that is used and the poor integration of the gene into
chromosomes
-the virus can cause a response from the immune system, thus destroying the virus
-although the new genes do get transferred, they are not successfully integrated into the chromosomes—meaning the
normal gene does not get reproduced along with the rest of the cells genes during cell division