GENERAL BIOLOGY

LAW OF
GENETICS
(ASSIGNMENT NO.3)

SUBMITTED BY: MARIA SOFIA LOPEZ

SECTION

: ANDRES BONIFACIO

SUBMITTED TO: Dr. Victorio B. Duyan

DATE

: November 16, 2016

1. What are the Fundamental Law of Genetics? Explain each.

There are 3 Fundamental Law of Genetics:

Law of Dominance- A dominant trait is a trait whose appearance will always be seen
in offspring. In other words, dominance describes the relationship between two
alleles. If an individual inherits two different alleles from each of its two parents and
the phenotype of only one allele is visible in the offspring, then that allele is said to be
dominant. Mendel's law of dominance states that if one parent has two copies of allele
A -the dominant allele- and the second parent has two copies of allele a- the recessive
allele- then the offspring will inherit an Aa genotype and display the dominant
phenotype.
Law of Segregation- states that these two alleles will be separated from each other
during meiosis. Specifically, in the second of the two cell divisions of meiosis the two
copies of each chromosome will be separated from each other, causing the two
distinct alleles located on those chromosomes to segregate from one another.
Law of Independent Assortment- states that the way an allele pair gets segregated
into two daughter cells during the second division of meiosis has no effect on how
any other allele pair gets segregated. In other words, the traits inherited through one
gene will be inherited independently of the traits inherited through another gene
because the genes reside on different chromosomes that are independently assorted
into daughter cells during meiosis.

Source: http://education.seattlepi.com/explanation-mendels-three-laws-through-discussionmeiosis-3838.html
2. Differentiate Incomplete Dominance from Codominance. Give examples for each.
Incomplete dominance is a form of intermediate inheritance in which one allele for a specific
trait is not completely expressed over its paired allele. This results in a third phenotype in which
the expressed physical trait is a combination of the phenotypes of both alleles. Examples:

A child with a wavy hair and parents where the one has a straight hair and the other
has a curly hair.

A snapdragon flower that is pink as a result of cross-pollination between a red flower

and a white flower when neither the white nor the red alleles are dominant.

While Codominance, alleles that are masked or hidden by dominant alleles are known as
recessive alleles. In some situations, both alleles are expressed equally. A genetic scenario where
neither allele is dominant or recessive and both get expressed. Examples:

AB Blood Type. People with this blood type have A and B proteins at the same time. The
ABO genes determine what blood type a person has, and everyone has two copies of this
gene, one from each parent. There are several combinations of blood types that can result,
but when a person has both an A and a B allele, it will lead to blood types visible in the
blood, AB.

Horse color. The roan coat color of a horse is due to codominance. Roan is the result
when a color appears in conjugation with white. It is the graying out of a color, and in
horses there are actually three types of roans: red, bay, and blue. All of the colors follow
similar co-dominance patterns.

Sources: http://biology.about.com/od/geneticsglossary/g/incompletedom.htm
http://www.medhealthdaily.com/incomplete-dominance-examples/
http://examples.yourdictionary.com/examples-of-incomplete-dominance.html
http://study.com/academy/lesson/codominance-definition-example-quiz.html
http://www.softschools.com/examples/science/codominance_examples/477/

3. What is multiple allele? Give example.

Multiple alleles is a type of non-Mendelian inheritance pattern that involves more than just the
typical two alleles that usually code for a certain characteristic in a species. With multiple alleles,
that means there is more than two phenotypes available depending on the dominant or recessive
alleles that are available in the trait and the dominance pattern the individual alleles follow when
combined together. Example:

Coat Color in Rabbit:

The color of the skin in rabbits is influenced by a series of multiple alleles. The normal color of
the skin is brown. Besides it there are white races called albino and Himalayan as the mutant
races. The Himalayan is similar to albino but has darker nose, ear, feet and tail. The mutant genes
albino (a) and Himalayan (ah) occupy the same locus and are allelic. Both albino and Himalayan
are recessive to their normal allele (+).
A cross between an albino and Himalayan produces a Himalayan in the F1 and not intermediate
as is usual in the case of other multiple alleles.

Sources: http://evolution.about.com/od/Evolution-Glossary/g/Multiple-Alleles.htm
http://www.biologydiscussion.com/genetics/multiple-alleles/multiple-alleles-meaningcharacteristics-and-examples-genes/35452
4. Explain Epistasis.
Epistasis is a type of gene interaction in which phenotypic expression of one gene alters that of
another independently inherited gene. Epistasis occurs when two or more different gene loci
contribute to the same phenotype, but not additively. Epistasis is often described as occurring

when one gene locus masks or modifies the phenotype of a second gene locus. The term
epistatic describes the relationship between the genes in epistasis.
Source: http://study.com/academy/lesson/epistasis-definition-examples.html
5. Explain Polygenic Inheritance.
Polygenic inheritance describes the inheritance of traits that are determined by more than one gene. This
type of inheritance differs from Mendelian inheritance patterns in which traits are determined by one
gene. Polygenic traits have many possible phenotypes that are determined by interactions among
several alleles. The genes contributing to a trait have equal influence and the alleles for the gene have an
additive effect. Polygenic traits do not exhibit complete dominance as do Mendelian traits, but
exhibit incomplete dominance.
Source: http://biology.about.com/od/genetics/ss/Polygenic-Inheritance.htm