GENERAL BIOLOGY

LAW OF DOMINANCE

GENETICS –is the science that deals with the heredity and the factors that affect the transmission of
traits from one generation to another.

HEREDITY -is the transmission of genetic materials from the parents to offspring.

FACTORS OF HEREDITY

 Biological Factors
 Environment
 Advanced Technology

WALTER SUTTON (coined the word “gene”) and THEODORE BOVERI found out that inherited trait is
determined by chromosome.

CHROMOSOME THEORY OF INHERITANCE explained that gene in the chromosome is responsible for the
transmission of traits.

CHROMOSOME is located inside the cell’s nucleus containing the DNA. DNA (Deoxyribonucleic Acid),
also called as the “blueprint of life” is the genetic material containing gene. GENE is the factor that
control the inheritance that is responsible for the transmission of traits.

GREGOR MENDEL was an Augustinian monk in Brunn, Austria. He was known as the Father of Classical
Genetics who formulated the Blending Theory of Inheritance, a discredited theory.

Blending Theory of Inheritance -inheritance of traits from two parents produces offspring with
characteristics that are intermediate between those of the parents.

WHY DID MENDEL DISPROVED THE BLENDING THEORY OF INHERITANCE?

When Mendel cross pollinated the tall pea plants and short pea plants, the resulting offspring were
either tall or short, not medium like what the blending theory of inheritance suggests.

During his plant – breeding research with the pea plants, he come up with the Principles and Laws of
Genetics, known as Mendelian Genetics because it was based on the results of the experiments done by
Mendel.

WHY DOES MENDEL CHOSE THE PEA

PLANTS?

✔ Easy to cultivate.

✔ Perfect flower.

✔ Cross pollination can be done

manually.

✔ Short generation time.

✔ With pair of contrasting traits.

PRINCIPLE OF DOMINANCE

In each organism, there is a pair of factors which controls the appearance of a particular trait. One
member of the pair of factors may hide or prevent the appearance of the other factor. One that is hidden
is called a recessive trait and the one that prevent the recessive trait from showing is the dominant trait.

GENETIC TERMS TO REMEMBER:

DOMINANT TRAIT usually seen or expressed, symbolized by the capital letters such as T, K or S.

RECESSIVE TRAIT usually hidden or not expressed, symbolized by small letters like t, k and s.

HOMOZYGOUS (PURE – BRED) the gene pairs are identical.

A. HOMOZYGOUS DOMINANT the gene pairs are both dominant, symbolized by both capital letters.

Examples: BB, DD, SS

B. HOMOZYGOUS RECESSIVE the gene pairs are both recessive, symbolized by both small letters.

Examples: bb, dd, ss

HETEROZYGOUS (HYBRID) the gene pairs are not identical, symbolized by one capital letter and one
small letter.

Examples: Bb, Dd, Ss

ALLELES the alternative forms of genes. Let G symbolized green pods and g symbolized the yellow pods.

Examples: then G and g are the alleles for the color of pods.

PHENOTYPE physical appearance of an organism usually an adjective or words describing a trait.

Examples: Blue eyes, Fair skin, Curly hair

GENOTYPE the genetic make – up of an organism usually a letter symbolizing the trait of an organism.

Examples: bb, Ff, CC

MENDELIAN PATTERN OF INHERIT

Mendelian inheritance (Mendelian genetics or Mendelism)

Mendelian inheritance -is a set of primary principles relating to the transmission of hereditary
characteristics from parent organisms to their children; it underlies much of genetics.

Laws of Inheritance

-The laws of inheritance were derived by Gregor Mendel, a 19th century monk conducting hybridization
experiments in garden peas (Pisum sativum). Between 1856 and 1863, he cultivated and tested some
28,000 pea plants.

-From these experiments, he deduced two generalizations that later became known as Mendel’s Laws of
Heredity or Mendelian inheritance. He described these laws in a two parts paper, “Experiments on Plant
Hybridization”, which was published in 1866.

Mendel’s Laws

-Mendel discovered that by crossing true-breeding white flower and true-breeding

purple flower plants, the result was a hybrid offspring. Rather than being a mix of
the two colors, the offspring was purple flowered.

-He then conceived the idea of heredity units, which he called “factors”, one of
which is a recessive characteristic and the other dominant.
1. Mendel’s Law of Segregation

● This law states that when two traits come together in one hybrid pair, the two characters do not
mix with each other and are independent of each other. Each gamete receives one of the two
alleles during meiosis of the chromosome.

● Mendel’s law of segregations supports the phenotypic ratio of 3:1 i.e. the homozygous dominant
and heterozygous offspring show dominant traits while the homozygous recessive shows the
recessive trait.

● The Gametes have two versions of each chromosome: one contributed by the female parent in
her ovum and one by the male parent in his sperm. These are joined at fertilization. The ovum
and sperm cells (the gametes) have only one copy of each chromosome and are described as
haploid.

● Alleles can be Dominant or Recessive:

● Recessive traits are only visible if an individual inherits two copies of the recessive allele: The
child in the photo expresses albinism, a recessive trait.

2. Mendel’s Law of Dominance

● This law states that in a heterozygous condition, the allele whose characters are expressed over
the other allele is called the dominant allele and the characters of this dominant allele are called
dominant characters.

● The characters that appear in the F1 generation are called as dominant characters.

● The recessive characters appear in the F2 generation.

3. Mendel’s Law of Independent Assortment/ Dihybrid cross

● This means that at the time of gamete formation, the two genes segregate independently of
each other as well as of other traits.

● The independent assortment of genes can be illustrated by the dihybrid cross: a cross between
two true-breeding parents that express different traits for two characteristics.

● Consider the characteristics of seed color and seed texture for two pea plants: one that has
green, wrinkled seeds (yyrr) and another that has yellow, round seeds (YYRR).

Legend:

1. Seed shape

R = dominant round seed

r = recessive wrinkled seed

2. Seed color

Y = dominant yellow seed

y = recessive green seed

Independent assortment/Dihybrid
cross: 2 traits are involved.
Reginald Punnett

● This means that at the time of gamete formation, he became interested in the experimental
process during his stay at Cambridge.

● Began a scientific collaboration with William Bateson (who was doing Mendelian
experimentation on plants and animals)

● They both published the first account of gene linkage in sweet peas and later developed the
“Punnett square”.

● Punnett Square - A tool used to predict the possible breeding outcomes of two genes segregate
independently of each other as well as of other traits.