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Genes, Inheritance
and Selection
OCR Gateway 2016 Biology topic 5
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B5.1 Inheritance
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Genome and Phenotype
Genetic information is stored by genes which are arranged on
chromosomes:
Section of a chromosome:

Genes for Genes for

blood group: eye colour

Genes for
hair colour
Definitions of key terms:
• The “genome” is the entire genetic material of an organism.
• The “phenotype” of an organism is the set of observable
characteristics of an individual resulting from the
interaction of its genotype with the environment.
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Examples of Continuous and
Discontinuous Variation
No. of people with Brown Blue Green
this eye colour

No. of Below 140- 145- 150- 155- 160- Above

people in 140cm 145cm 150cm 155cm 160cm 165cm 165cm
this
height
range

Which table shows continuous data and which one shows

discontinuous data?
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Variation
Variation is a name given to differences in a species, e.g. dogs:

Variation in any species is due to each animal having different

genetic information in their cells. These variations arise from
mutations and these mutations can:
1) Have no effect on phenotype
2) Influence phenotype
3) Determine phenotype
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Genetic mutations (Bio HT only)
Here’s a sequence of bases in DNA: A T C G G A T

Q. What happens if this sequence is changed?

For example, what if a mutation A T C AG G A T

caused this to happen?

Genetic variation may influence phenotype by:

1) In coding DNA, in can alter the activity of a protein by
changing the shape of the active site
2) In non-coding DNA in can alter how genes are expressed by
stopping transcription of mRNA
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Sexual vs. Asexual reproduction
Sexual reproduction:
• 2 parents are needed
• Offspring will have “pairs” of chromosomes
• This will cause genetic variation

Asexual reproduction:
• Only 1 parent needed
• Offspring are GENETICALLY IDENTICAL to
parent (“clones”)
“Snuppy” – the
first cloned dog
(Aug 05)
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Sexual vs asexual reproduction (Bio only)

Advantages of sexual Advantages of asexual

reproduction reproduction

No need to
Increased find a mate
variation,
which may Which form of More time
cause an reproduction is and energy-
evolutionary better? efficient
advantage
Faster than sexual
reproduction
Selective breeding can
be used to increase Produces a clone of
food production a good animal
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Cell growth revision - Mitosis

Each daughter cell has

the same number of
chromosomes and genetic
information as the parent
– a “diploid cell”.
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Cell growth 2 - Meiosis

Each daughter cell has half

the number of chromosomes
of the parent – a genetically
different haploid gamete.
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Mitosis vs. Meiosis
Mitosis: Meiosis:
1. Used for growth and repair of 1. Used to produce haploid
cells gametes for sexual
2. Used in asexual reproduction reproduction

3. Cells with identical number of 2. Each daughter cell has half the
chromosomes and genetic number of chromosomes of the
information are produced parent
(“clones”)

During meiosis copies

of the genetic
information are made
and then the cell
divides twice to form
four daughter cells.
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Fusing gametes during Fertilisation

46 chromosomes
in a fertilised
egg
Egg

23 chromosomes
in here
Sperm

23 chromosomes
in here Fertilisation
 Basic genetics - Boy or Girl?
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Note that the Y

chromosome is “dominant”
and the X is “recessive”.
The Y chromosome dictates
the development of testes.

X Y X

“Allele”
“Phenotype”
XX XY
Girl Boy
Heterozygous Homozygous
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Mother Boy or Girl?

During sexual
reproduction,
children
inherit two
alleles of each
gene (one from
each parent).

Son

Daughter
Father
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Genetic Diagrams
Here’s what happens (genetically) when an egg is fertilised:

Mother Father

xx xy
Equal (50%)
chance of
being a boy or
x x x y a girl

xx xy xx xy
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Genetic Diagrams
Here’s another way of drawing it:

Father

Mother x y
x
x
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Key words
Genotype
• This allele determines the development of a
Phenotype characteristic
• The characteristic caused by the genotype
Allele • This allele will determine a characteristic only if
there are no dominant ones
Dominant • This word refers to a pair of chromosomes being
made of two different alleles of a gene
Recessive • The genetic make up in a nucleus
• This word refers to a pair of chromosomes being
Homozygous made of two of the same alleles of a gene
• An alternative form of a gene
Heterozygous
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Eye colour
In eye colour the brown eye allele is dominant, so we call it
B, and the blue eye is recessive, so we call it b:

BB Bb bb

Homozygous Heterozygous Blue-eyed parent

brown-eyed brown-eyed
parent parent

What would the offspring have?


Eye colour
Example 1: A homozygous
brown-eyed parent and a blue-
eyed parent:
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Example 2: 2 heterozygous
brown-eyed parents

Parents: BB X bb Bb X Bb

Gametes: B B b b B b B b

(FOIL)

Offspring: Bb Bb Bb Bb BB Bb bB bb

All offspring have brown eyes 25% chance of blue eyes

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Eye colour
Example 3: A
heterozygous Bb bb
brown-eyed
father and a Equal (50%)
blue-eyed chance of
mother: being either
B b b b brown eyed or
blue eyed.

Bb Bb bb bb

Note – in reality, characteristics like this are usually depend

on the instructions of multiple genes and other parts of the
genome.
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Another method – the “Punnett square”
Example 3: A heterozygous brown-eyed
father and a blue-eyed mother:

Father

Mother B b
b Bb bb
b Bb bb
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Example questions
1) In mice, white fur is dominant. What type of offspring
would you expect from a cross between a heterozygous
individual and one with grey fur? Explain your answer with a
genetic diagram.

2) A homozygous long-tailed cat is crossed with a homozygous

short-tailed cat and produces a litter of 9 long-tailed kittens.
Show the probable offspring which would be produced if two
of these kittens were mated and describe the characteristics
of the offspring (hint: work out the kitten’s genotype first).
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Modern Genetics
Guten tag! My name is Gregor Mendel. I
am the father of modern genetics
because of the work I did on pea plants in
1865…

Mendel’s experiment:

Take two plants; one which is

pure-bred for tallness and one
pure-bred for shortness, and
cross them:
X
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Modern Genetics

All the plants produced

were tall.

Now cross two of these plants…

3 out of every 4 plants

were tall, leading Mendel
to hypothesise that “for
every characteristic
there must be two
determiners”
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Modern Genetics
Achtung! Unfortunately, nobody knew
about chromosomes or genes when I
published my findings so no one believed
me until after my death, when more
powerful microscopes were available.

Mendel’s work illustrates how scientists develop ideas that

account for the data they have collected. We now know that
features of organisms (“phenotypic features”) are the result
of multiple genes rather than a single gene.
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B5.2 Natural Selection and Evolution
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Genetic Variation
The world is populated by millions of different species of
animals and plants with HUGE genetic variation…
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Classification
How would you construct a key to classify these organisms?
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Classifying organisms
All organisms are classified into groups. For example:

What is the Organism “Kingdoms”

main difference
between these?
Plants Animals

Vertebrates Invertebrates

Amphibians Birds Reptiles Fish Mammals

Notice that the number of “Species”

similarities increases as
Dogs Cats
you go down this tree
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Why use classification?

Dog – “Canis lupus Wasp – “vespula Human –

familiaris” germanica” “homo sapien”

I invented the modern system of naming

species. I did this so that species would
have the same name in every language and so
that we would have a greater ability to
understand different species and how they
have evolved.
Carolus Linnaeus, 1707-1778
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Molecular Phylogenetics
Modern DNA research shows that all forms of life share a lot
of their DNA. This is used by scientists to help them classify
species – “molecular phylogenetics”.

98.8% shared DNA

85% shared DNA
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Evolution
Evolution is the slow change in
organisms that happens over
a long period of time. All
life on Earth has evolved
from simple life forms that
existed around 3 billion
years ago. It happens
through a process called
Charles Darwin, “natural selection”, which
1809-1882 basically says this:

1) Different 2) The “better 3) They then have

species show adapted” ones kids who also have
variation due to survive the “better”
mutations phenotypes
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Evidence for Evolution

Fossil records, showing the Antibiotic-resistant

development of an organism bacteria, giving evidence
over a long period of time for natural selection

Now that the mechanism of natural selection has been

understood and with evidence like fossils and antibiotic-
resistant bacteria, the theory of evolution is widely accepted.
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Evolution
As I said, evolution is the slow change in
organisms that happens over a long period of
time. Who did I work with?

Charles Darwin,
1809-1882

I also worked on a theory of evolution and

came up with ideas about natural selection.
I also realised that warning colours are
produced by some species (e.g. Butterflies)
– an example of a beneficial adaptation that
Alfred
had evolved through natural selection.
Wallace
1823-1913
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The “Evolution Tree”
Ideas about evolution have impacted modern biology. For
example, consider the evolution tree:

Family Hylobatidae Family Hominidae

(Lesser Apes) (Great Apes)

Subfamily Subfamily
Ponginae Hominidae
The theory is that we
have descended from Tribe Panini Tribe Homini
the same ancestors. Tribe Gorillini
Why is that important?

Gibbons Orangutans Chimpanzees Gorillas Humans

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Using ideas about Evolution
Here are some ways in which theories of modern evolution
have impacted modern biology:
1) Classification is now based on
evolutionary relationships

2) We know that bacteria can develop

resistance to antibiotics and can
therefore understand the need to
develop new antibiotics and “finish
the course”

3) We understand the need to

preserve species, e.g. the Millennium
Seed bank