Heredity and Evolution

recognizable feature of a human being (or any other organism) like height, complexion, shape of
hair, colour of eyes, and shape of nose and chin, etc., are called ‘characters’ or ‘traits’.

The transmission of characters (or traits) from the parents to their offspring’s is called heredity.
The hereditary information is present in the sex cells (or gametes) of the parents. Thus,
gametes constitute the link between one generation and the next, and pass on the paternal
(father’s) and maternal (mother’s) characters or traits to the offspring.

This relation that continues to exist between successive generations is referred to as heredity.
Variations
Although the offsprings inherit the characters (or traits) of the parents and resemble them very
closely, but the resemblance is not complete in all respects. The offsprings are never a true copy of
the parents. In fact, no two individuals are exactly alike and the members of any one species differ
from one another in some characters (or traits) or the other. These differences are known as
variations.
The differences in the characters (or traits) among the individuals of a species is called variation.
For example of variations in human beings which involves our ears. The lowest part of our ear is
called earlobe.
In most of the people, the earlobe is ‘hanging’ and it is called free earlobe. In some people, however,
the earlobe is closely attached to the side of the head and it is called attached earlobe. the
variation is a necessity for organic evolution.

Accumulation of Variations
The reproduction of organisms produces variations. The variations produced in organisms during
successive generations get accumulated in the organisms. The significance of a variation shows
up only if it continues to be inherited by the offspring for several generations.
Suppose a bacterium produces two bacteria by asexual reproduction. Again suppose that one of the
offspring bacterium has a variation due to which it can tolerate a little higher temperature (or little
more heat) than the other one. Now, this variation of little more heat resistance will go on
accumulating in the offsprings of successive generations of this bacterium. And this will ultimately
give rise to a variant of bacteria which will be highly heat resistant and able to survive even at very
high temperatures.
The great advantage of variation to a species is that it increases the chances of its survival in a
changing environment.
Chromosome is a thread-like structure in the nucleus of a cell formed of DNA which carries
the genes.
Different organisms have different number of chromosomes in their nuclei. A gene is a unit of DNA
on a chromosome which governs the synthesis of one protein that controls a specific
characteristic (or trait) of an organism.
Genes are actually units of heredity which transfer characteristics (or traits) from parents to
their offspring’s during reproduction. Genes work in pairs.

Genes for controlling the same characteristic of an organism can be of

two types : dominant or recessive.

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The gene which decides the appearance of an organism even in the presence of an
alternative gene is known as a dominant gene.
It dominates the recessive gene for the same characteristic on the other chromosome of the pair.

The gene which can decide the appearance of an organism only in the presence of another
identical gene is called a recessive gene.
A single recessive gene cannot decide the appearance of an organism.

The dominant gene is represented by a capital letter and the corresponding recessive gene is
represented by the corresponding small letter.

For example, in pea plants, the dominant gene for tallness is T and the recessive gene for dwarfness
is t. Thus, when we write the genetic cross for pea plant, then the capital ‘T’ represents ‘tall’ and
small’s’ represents ‘dwarf’. Genotype shows the genetic constitution of an organism.

Genotype is the description of genes present in an organism. The characteristic (or trait)
which is visible in an organism is called its phenotype.
For example, being ‘tall’ or ‘dwarf’ (short) are phenotypes of a plant because these traits can be
seen by us or they are visible to us. The phenotype of an organism is actually its physical
characteristic which is determined by its genotype. For example, genotype TT or Tt results in a tall
phenotype and the genotype tt results in a dwarf phenotype.

When two parents cross (or breed) to produce progeny (or offspring’s), then 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, then this progeny is called
second filial generation or F2 generation.

Gregor Mendel was the first scientist to make a systematic study of patterns of inheritance which
involved the transfer of characteristics from parents to progeny.
Mendel chose pea plants for studying inheritance because pea plants had a number of clear cut
differences which were easy to tell apart.

For example, some pea plants were ‘tall’ (having long stem) whereas others were ‘dwarf’ (having
short stem). Some pea plants produced round yellow seeds whereas others produced wrinkled-
green seeds, etc. Another reason for choosing pea plants was that they were self-pollinating (which
enabled them to produce next generation of plants easily). And finally, Mendel chose pea plants to

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study inheritance (and not animals including human beings) because many generations of pea
plants can be produced in a comparatively short time span and their study is much simpler than
that of animals.
A new form of plant resulting from a cross (or breeding) of different varieties of a plant is
known as a hybrid.
When we breed two pea plants having one contrasting characteristic each (or one trait each) to
obtain new plants, then it is called a monohybrid cross.

In monohybrid cross we will study the inheritance of one pair of contrasting characteristics
‘tallness’ and ‘dwarfness’ of the pea plants by their first generation and second generation
progeny.

In the dihybrid cross we will study the inheritance of two pairs of contrasting characteristics
of pea plants such as round-yellow seeds and wrinkled-green seeds.

RULES FOR THE INHERITANCE OF TRAITS: MENDEL’S CONTRIBUTION

Inheritance is the transmission of genetically controlled characteristics (or traits) from one
generation to the next.
we will discuss ‘Monohybrid inheritance’ which concerns the inheritance of a single characteristic
(or single trait) such as plant height. After that we will describe the dihybrid inheritance which
involves the inheritance of two characteristics (or two traits) such as seed shape and seed colour.

1. Monohybrid Inheritance and the Law of Segregation

In order to trace the inheritance of a single pair of contrasting characteristics among the pea
plants.Mendel crossed (cross-bred) the pure-bred pea plants differing in these traits and noted
their occurrence in the progeny of succeeding generations.

(i) 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. No dwarf pea plants (or
short pea plants) were obtained in the first generation of progeny. From this Mendel concluded that
the first generation (or F1 cross) showed the traits of only one of the parent plants: tallness. The
trait of other parent plant, dwarfness, did not show up in the progeny of first generation.

(ii) Mendel then crossed the tall pea plants of the first generation (F1 generation) and found that
tall plants and dwarf plants were obtained in the second generation (or F2 generation) in the ratio
of 3 : 1. In other words in the F2 generation, three-fourth plants were tall and one-fourth were
dwarf. Mendel noted that the dwarf trait of the parent pea plant which had seemingly disappeared
in the first generation progeny, reappeared in the second generation. Mendel said that the trait of
dwarfness of one of the parent pea plant had not been lost, it was merely concealed or supressed in
the first generation to reemerge in the second generation.

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Mendel called the repressed trait of ‘dwarfness’ as ‘recessive trait’ and the expressed trait of
‘tallness’ as the ‘dominant trait’.
In this way, Mendel’s experiments with tall and dwarf pea plants showed that the traits may be
dominant or recessive.

Out of a total 1064 pea plants of F2 generation, Mendel found that there were 787 tall pea plants
and 277 dwarf pea plants. The ratio of tall plants to dwarf plants comes to be 787: 277 = 2.84: 1,
which is approximately equal to 3: 1.
Thus, a yet another result obtained from Mendel’s monohybrid inheritance experiment is that the
ratio of tall plants to dwarf plants in the F2 generation is 3: 1.
Since tallness is a dominant trait and dwarfness is a recessive trait, so we can also say that
the contrasting progeny in the F2 generation occur in the ratio of 3 dominant to 1 recessive.

According to Mendel’s first law of inheritance: The characteristics (or traits) of an organism are
determined by internal ‘factors’ which occur in pairs. Only one of a pair of such factors can be
present in a single gamete.

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