Medelian Genetics

What is Genetics?

⚫ Genetics The study of the way animals & plants

pass on to their offspring such as:
eye color, hair color, height, body build, blood types,
intelligence, gender, etc.

⚫ HEREDITY - Characteristics that a child receives

from both parents
What is a Trait?
⚫ A trait is a specific characteristic that varies
from one individual to another.
⚫ Examples: Brown hair, blue eyes, tall, curly
What is an Allele?
⚫ Alleles are the different
possibilities for a given
trait.
⚫ Every trait has at least two
alleles (one from the Examples of Alleles:
A = Brown Eyes
mother and one from the a = Blue Eyes
father) B = Green Eyes
b = Hazel Eyes
⚫ Example: Eye color –
Brown, blue, green, hazel
What are Genes?
⚫ Genes are the
sequence of DNA
that codes for a
protein and thus
determines a trait.
 Gregor Mendel
⚫ Father of Genetics
⚫ 1st important studies of
heredity
⚫ Identified specific traits in the garden pea and
studied them from one generation to another
 Gregor Johann Mendel
▪Austrian monk
▪Studied the inheritance
of traits in pea plants
▪Developed the laws of
inheritance
▪Mendel's work was not
recognized until the
turn of the 20th century

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 Gregor Johann Mendel
▪Between 1856 and 1863,
Mendel cultivated and
tested some 28,000 pea
plants

▪He found that the plants'

offspring retained traits
of the parents

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 Mendel’s
Conclusions
1. Law of Segregation – Two alleles for each
trait separate when gametes form; Parents pass
only one allele for each trait to each offspring
2. Law of Independent Assortment – Genes for
different traits are inherited independently of
each other
 Dominant vs. Recessive
⚫ Dominant - Masks the other trait; the trait that
shows if present
⚫ Represented by a capital letter R
⚫ Recessive – An organism with a recessive allele for
a particular trait will only exhibit that trait when the
dominant allele is not present; Will only show if
both alleles are present
⚫ Represented by a lower case letter r
Dominant & Recessive Practice
T – straight hair
t - curly hair

⚫ TT - Represent offspring with straight hair

⚫ Tt - Represent offspring with straight hair
⚫ tt - Represents offspring with curly hair
Genotype vs. Phenotype
⚫ Genotype – The genetic makeup of an organism; The
gene (or allele) combination an organism has.
⚫ Example: Tt, ss, GG, Ww
⚫ Phenotype – The physical characteristics of an
organism; The way an
organism looks
⚫ Example: Curly hair,
straight hair, blue eyes,
tall, green
Homozygous vs. Heterozygous
⚫ Homozygous – Term used to refer
to an organism that has two RR
identical alleles for a particular
trait (TT or tt) rr
⚫ Heterozygous - Term used to refer
to an organism that has two
different alleles for the same trait
Rr
(Tt)
Punnett Squares
⚫ Punnett Square – Diagram showing the gene
combinations that might result from a genetic
cross
⚫ Used to calculate the
probability of inheriting
a particular trait
⚫ Probability – The chance
that a given event will
occur
Punnett Square
Parent

Parent Offspring
How to Complete a Punnett Square
 Y-Yellow
y-white

Genotype:
1:2:1
(YY:Yy:yy)

Phenotype:
3 Yellow
1 White
You Try It Now!
⚫ Give the genotype and phenotype for the following cross:
TT x tt (T = Tall and t = Short)
 TT x tt
Step One: Set Up Punnett Square (put one parent on the top and
the other along the side)

T T
t

t
 TT x tt
Step Two: Complete the Punnett Square

T T
t Tt Tt
t Tt Tt
 TT x tt
Step Three: Write the genotype and phenotype

T T
Genotype:
t Tt Tt 4 - Tt

t Tt Tt Phenotype:
100% Tall

Remember: Each box is 25%

You Try It Now!
⚫ Give the genotype and phenotype for the following cross:
Tt x tt
 Tt x tt
Step One: Set Up Punnett Square (put one parent on the top and
the other along the side)

T t
t

t
 Tt x tt
Step Two: Complete the Punnett Square

T t
t Tt tt
t Tt tt
 Tt x tt
Step Two: Complete the Punnett Square

T t Genotype:
Tt - 2 (50%)
t Tt tt tt - 2 (50%)

t Tt tt Phenotype:
50% Tall
50% Short
Remember: Each box is 25%
 Some Terminology
⚫ P1 – Original parents
⚫ F1 – First generation
⚫ F2 – Second generation

⚫ P1 X P1 = F1
⚫ F1 X F1 = F2
Incomplete Dominance
⚫ Incomplete Dominance - Situation in which
one allele is not completely dominant over
another.
⚫ Example – Red and
white flowers are
crossed and pink
flowers are produced.
Codominance
⚫ Codominance - Situation in which both alleles of
a gene contribute to the phenotype of the
organism.
⚫ Example – A solid white cow is crossed with a solid
brown cow and the resulting offspring are spotted
brown and white (called roan).

⚫ +
Multiple Alleles
⚫ Multiple Alleles- Three or more alleles of the
same gene.
⚫ Even though three or more alleles exist for a
particular trait, an individual can only have two
alleles - one from the mother and one from the
father.
Examples of Multiple Alleles
1. Coat color in rabbits is determined by a
single gene that has at least four different
alleles. Different combinations of alleles
result in the four colors you see here.
Examples of Multiple Alleles
2. Blood Type – 3 alleles
exist (IA, IB, and i),
which results in four
different possible blood
types
3. Hair Color – Too many
alleles exist to count
⚫ There are over 20
different shades of
hair color.
Multiple Alleles
⚫ There Are Always Multiple Alleles!
⚫ Genetic inheritance is often presented with
straightforward examples involving only two alleles with
clear-cut dominance. This makes inheritance patterns easy
to see.
⚫ But very few traits actually only have two alleles with
clear-cut dominance. As we learn more about genetics,
we have found that there are often hundreds of alleles for
any particular gene.
⚫ We probably know this already - as we look around at other
people, we see infinite variation.
Polygenic Trait
⚫ Polygenic Trait - Trait
controlled by two or more
genes.
⚫ Polygenic traits often show a
wide range of phenotypes.
⚫ Example: The wide range of
skin color in humans comes
about partly because more than
four different genes probably
control this trait.