UNIVERSITY OF MYSORE

DEPARTMENT OF STUDIES IN ZOOLOGY

MANASAGANGOTHRI
MYSORE

SEMINAR TOPIC: NATURE AND NURTURE

PRESENTED BY:
MITHUNRAJ.C
DEPT. OF ZOOLOGY
MANASAGANGOTHRI
MYSORE
GUIDED BY:
PROF S.N.HEGDE
DEPT. OF ZOOLOGY
MANASAGANGOTHRI
MYSORE
 INTRODUCTION
• All living organisms have genetic material which controls all morphological
traits, physiological reaction and biochemical manifestations.

• As long as animal is alive its heredity interacts with environment. This

interaction determines the phenotype of the individual.

• Two individuals with the same genotype may become different in

phenotype when they come in contact with different environmental
conditions

• Francis Galton used the term Nature and Nurture to represent heredity
and environment.

• Heredity or Nature determines the potential and the environment or the

Nurture determines to what extent the individual reaches its potential.
 NORM OF REACTION

• A norm of reaction describes the pattern of phenotypic

expression of a single genotype across a range of
environments.

• One use of norms of reaction is in describing how

different species especially related species respond to
varying environments.

• An enormous complexity exist in the interrelationships

between genetic and environmental factors in
determining traits.
Effect of environment on phenotypic expression

Example:
• The plant Potentilla grandulosa shows
difference In their phenotype according to
the elevation and humidity of the place in
which they grow

• Depending on the elevation they show

difference in the length of the stem, width of
the leaf and difference in their time to reach
the flowering stage

• The same genotype thus reacts to different

environments in different ways to develop
differently and to acquire different
phenotypes
Alteration by temperature
Example: Fur pattern of Himalayan rabbits
• Himalayan rabbits have white fur over most of the
body, but black fur on their legs and nose. This is
caused by a recessive gene

• This pattern is produced through the differences in

temperature in different parts of the body.

• If fur is plucked from the white parts and the animals

is kept in a cold place, the new fur comes is black
rather than white.

• On the other hand if the fur is plucked from the black

parts and if the part is kept warm the new hair comes
is white rather than black.

• At first it appeared that this pattern is inherited

• what is really inherited is the ability of certain parts to

form pigment, and not to form it, depending on the
particular temperature obtaining in that part at a
specific time.
Effect of sunlight
• Freckles are clusters of concentrated
melanin on the skin which appears
as brown spots

• If identical twins inherit the same

gene for freckling and if one individual
works indoor developed comparitively
less freckles than the other one who
worked out in the sun

• Here potentialites to produce

freckles was acted upon by sunlight
in the enviroment to produce different
phenotypic expression.
Food as an environmental factor

• Food is a vital important

environmental factor which has
extensive effect on the expression
of genes.

• In Drosophila there is a gene for

giant body size. Such a gene will
have a very slow penetrance when
there is a scanty food supply. The
flies do not show the giant body
size even though the genes may
be present in homozygous
condition.

• On the other hand if the food

supply is abundant the flies will be
giants
Hormones and gene expression

• Hormones play such an and important

part in the growth and activities of
animals

• In mice a recessive gene produces a

dwarf body size when homozygous

• In this dwarf mice pitutary gland is

abnormally developed, so the growth
hormone is not sufficiently produced
this leads to stunted in growth.

• The other genes for normal body

growth are present in such animals,
but they cannot express themselves
in the absence of sufficient in
quantities of the growth hormone
 Phenocopy
• A phenocopy is an individual whose phenotype, under a particular environmental condition,
is identical to the one of another individual whose phenotype is determined by the genotype.

• The normal body colour of D.melanogaster is light brown with black markings on the
abdomen

• A mutant found by Morgan in 1910, has a yellow body colour

• In 1939 Rappoport found that when larvae of normal flies are raised on food containing
silver salts, they develop into yellow flies.

• This yellow fly is a phenocopy of the yellow mutant.

• Thus a genotypically normal fly has the potentiality of developing a yellow phenotype when
raised in a certain environment.
 Concordance and discordance
• When members of a twin pair both show or fail to show the trait in question, they
are called concordants (++ --) and when only one of the twin shows the trait,
they are called discordants ( + -).

• identical twins are always concordant with respect to fully penetrant hereditary
characteristics; where as fraternal twins are sometimes discordant with respect to
such characteristics.

• Measles, scarlet fever, and tuberculosis are infectious diseases which come from
the environment.

• Nevertheless, the proportion of twins concordant with respect to tuberculosis is

significantly greater among the identical than it is among the fraternal.

• There is evidently a genotypic predisposition to this disease; the carriers of some

genotypes more likely than other to develop tuberculosis.

• For measles the frequency of concordance is so high both among the identical
and fraternal twins that all, or nearly all, genotypes in this sample evidently make
their carriers susceptible to infection with the virus that produces this disease.
 Traits Twin pairs studied Identical Fraternal

Identical Fraternal ++ -- ++ --

Measles 189 146 95 5 87 13

Scarlet fever 120 136 64 36 47 53

Tuberculosis 190 427 74 26 28 72

Percentage of concordance and discordance with respect to certain traits in

Pairs of identical and fraternal twins.
Intelligence in man
• One of the most important human factors
influenced by heredity is intelligence.
• The genotype for intelligence may be there, but
they cannot express if there is no proper
environment

• mental capacity among human beings are partly

hereditary and partly environmental

• A good environment seems to elevate the

intelligence quotient or IQ of children and a bad
one depress it.

• The twin studies on intelligence test behaviours

show modifiability of IQ score under the influence
of differences in environment and greater similarity
in IQ of identical twins, whether reared together of
in different homes, than that of non-identical twins
reared in the same home.
• Differences in intelligence scores of non-identical twins are
partly due to differences in their environments and partly to
hereditary differences

• Thus high intelligence is a heritable factor, but the

expression of intelligence is dependent on what training
child gets.
 Penetrance and expressivity
• Penetrance is the proportion of individuals carrying a particular
variation of a gene (allele or genotype) that also express an
associated trait. Expressivity measures the extent to which a given
genotype is expressed at the phenotypic level

Example:
• Sclerotic coat of the human eye is normally white. A certain
dominant gene can cause this coat to be blue

• About 10 percent of the people who carry this gene, however, do

not express the blue sclera but have a normal white sclera.

• These people can transmit the gene to their children may express
the dominant gene.

• We say that the gene has a reduced penetrance-a penetrance of

90%
• The gene for blue sclera also
illustrates variation in expressivity

• Among the 90 percent of those who

carry the gene and express it, there
will be a considerable variation in
the shade of blue of the sclera

• In some persons the sclera will be

pale and in some persons it is dark
blue in colour and in some people it
will be light in colour
 Sex influenced traits
• These are the traits which are autosomal in nature
whose expression is dependent on cellular
environment.

Example: pattern baldness in man

• Pattern baldness is a sex- influenced trait in man.
• The character is more prevalent in men than in
women
• This particular trait is dominant in men and recessive
in women.
• Baldness is controlled by the genes BB
• If this gene is expressed in homozygous (BB)
condition both men and women are bald. If it is
Example: pattern baldness expressed in heterozygous condition (Bb) only men
In man are bald and women will have normal hair.
• It seems that a single gene can operate only in the
presence of male hormone Androgen
• in the female the hormone estrogen prevents the
phenotypic manifestations of pattern baldness.
 Phenotypic plasticity
• Phenotypic plasticity is the ability of an organism to change its phenotype
in response to changes in the environment.

• Organisms may differ in the degree of phenotypic plasticity they display

when exposed to the same environmental change.

• Hence, phenotypic plasticity can evolve and be adaptive if fitness is

increased by changing phenotype.

• Phenotypic plasticity is more important for immobile organisms like plants

than animals because immobile organisms must adapt to their environment
or they will die whereas mobile organisms are able to move away from a
detrimental environment.

For example:
• The plant Mesembryanthemum crystallinum are able to alter their
photosynthetic pathways to use less water when they become stressed.
 Conclusion

• Nature and Nurture are like two facets of a coin

• Both genes and environment play a major role in shaping an

organism

• one cannot act alone in shaping the organism they interact together
in developing a character of the organism

• The present day vast array of life with their indomitable adjustments
to environment is the outcome of the struggle between Nature and
Nurture
 References
• 1) Edmund W. Sinnott, Dunn, L.C and Theodosius Dobzhansky. (1958).
“Principles of Genetics”, Fifth edition, Mcgraw-Hill book company, Inc.
New York, pp-17-30,125-132,133-141.

• 2) Edward Colin C. (1956). “Elements Of Genetics”, Third edition,

Mcgraw-Hill publishing Company Inc. New York.

• 3) Ralph Singleton, W. (1962) “Elementary Genetics”, D. Van Nostrand

Company, Inc, Toronto.

• 4)Strickberger Monroe w. “ GENETICS” , Third edition, phi publishers.

• 5) Winchester A.M. (1966). “Genetics” A Survey of the Principles of

heredity, Third edition, Oxford and IBN publishing Company, Calcutta.

• 6)Internet: Google.co.in en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phenotypic_plasticity /

THANK YOU