Chapter 4: Heredity

Notes

I. Mendel and His Peas

• There is no one else in the world exactly like you except for an identical twin – We have
different physical characteristics that separate us from other specious and other creatures, but
fellow humans our different to each other also – We mostly resemble our parents and
ascendants and have traits of our own different from them
A. Why Don't You Look Like a Rhinoceros?
• Heredity: The passing of traits from parent to offspring – We are similar to our parents, we
might have the same hair as them or the same eye color, but you might differ from them –
Gregor Mendel investigated on why these traits are passed on and why they aren't
B. Who Was Gregor Mendel?
• Gregor Mendel: Born in 1822 in Heinzendorf , Austria – Grew up on his family's farm and learn
about cultivating flowers and fruit trees – Completed studies at a university and then entered a
monastery, where he was able to study the way traits are passed on from parents to offspring
C. Unraveling the Mystery
• Through his experience of breeding plants, Mendel knew that there were some patterns of
inheritance that were very simple and some very complex, so he started investigating to know
why – Mendel was interested in the way traits are passed from parent to offspring, like how a
generation with a special trait produced a second generation without the trait, then that
generation would have offspring with the same trait – Because of how many different traits and
qualities to explore in different animals that would confuse Mendel, he decided to study only
one kind of organism, the garden pea
• Mendel chose the garden pea because they are plants that grow quickly and is self-pollinating –
Self-pollinating plant: A plant that contains both male and female reproductive structures so
they can fertilize their eggs alone – Since a self-pollinating plant like the garden pea can
fertilize its own eggs, it can fertilize another plant's eggs as well – If pollen from male anthers
of one plant is transferred to the female stigma of another, it's eggs will be fertilized the same
way it could fertilize independently
D. Peas Be My Podner
• Mendel chose to study only one characteristic of the pea offspring at a time since there were so
many (pea height, pea color) so he could understand his results – Mendel chose two plants with
a form of each trait he studied (tall plant, short plant, round seed, wrinkled seed, purple flower,
white flower)
• Mendel was cautious about only using true-breeding plants – True-breeding plant: Self-
pollinates and will always produce offspring with the same trait the parent has (a tall true-
breeding plant would produce offspring that are tall)
• Mendel learned that he could cross two plants with different forms of a single trait through
cross-pollination, when the anthers of one plant are removed so it cannot self-pollinate
anymore, then the pollen from another plant is taken and used to fertilize the plant without
anthers – This helped Mendel because he could now select which pollen he could use to fertilize
in which plant

Plant that Anthers are Plant uses the pollen to fertilize it's eggs
produces removed
wrinkled seeds
Plant that Pollen is
produces round transferred to the
seeds stigma

E. Mendel's First Experiment

• In Mendel's first experiment, he performed cross-pollination to study seven characteristics, each
cross being between two traits of each characteristic (if the characteristic is height, the traits are
tall and short) – Plants that produce offspring are the parent generation, and it's offspring are
called the first generation – When Mendel crossed two plants with one trait (round seeds) and
one with the opposite of that trait (wrinkled seeds), it's offspring had only one of those two traits
(round seeds) – Mendel learned that one trait of the characteristic would always appear, and one
would not – Dominant trait: A trait that appears in the offspring of a parent generation that only
one parent had – Recessive trait: A trait one parent in a parent generation had but did not appear
in the offspring – Mendel conducted a second experiment to find out what might have happened
to the recessive trait

F. Mendel's Second Experiment

• In Mendel's second experiment, he allowed the first generation from each of the seven crosses
he originally had to self-pollinate – When the first generation with the dominant trait of round
seeds self-pollinated and produced another second generation, it had one wrinkled seed every
three round seeds because the recessive trait had shown up again – Mendel performed the
experiment on each of the seven characteristics and concluded that no matter what characteristic
the crosses were, when the first generation was allowed to self-pollinate, the recessive trait
showed up again even though the first generation did not show it

Parent Generation (One with The First Generation (All round The Second Generation (One
wrinkled seeds, one with round seeds) The dominant trait wrinkled seed every three round
seeds) Cross-pollinates to make appeared; Self-pollinates to seeds) The recessive trait
make appeared;

G. A Different Point of View

• Mendel then counted the number of plants with each trait that turned up in the second
generation through his experiment results in the table below

Characteris Flower Seed color Seed shape Pod color Pod shape Flower Plant
tic Color position height
Dominant 705 purple 6,002 5,474 428 green 882 smooth 651 along 787 tall
Trait yellow round stem
Recessive 224 white 2,001 green 1,859 152 yellow 299 bumpy 207 at tip 277 short
Trait wrinkled

• The table shows that recessive traits DO show up again, but not as often as the dominant trait –
Mendel calculated ratios of dominant traits to recessive traits for each characteristic – Overall
ratio between dominant and recessive is 3:1 (for every 3 purple flowers [dominant trait] there
will be 1 white flower [recessive])
H. A Brilliant Idea
 • Mendel realized that his results could be explained only if each plant had two sets of
instructions for each characteristic, one from one parent and one from the other – Gene: A set of
instructions donated by one parent to it's offspring – A fertilized egg would have an allele for
every characteristic – Allele: Two forms of one gene in an offspring, one donated by one parent
and one by the other
• Punnett square: A diagram used to visualize all possible of combinations of alleles from two
parents – Dominant alleles are symbolized in capital letters (P,D,) recessive alleles in lower case
(p,d) – Example of punnet square (in the red) for two alleles, PP (purple flower) x pp (white
flower)
p p
P Pp Pp
P Pp Pp
• Genotype: The inherited combination of alleles (each box in the punnet square is a possible
genotype) – The punnet box above all has the same genotype: Pp – The dominant allele, P,
ensures that all offspring will be purple-flowered plants – Phenotype: an organisms appearance
– The recessive allele, may be passed on to the NEXT generation of offspring
• In Mendel's second experiment, he allowed the first-generation plants to self-pollinate, the
Punnett square for this is: Pp x Pp:
Pp Pp
P PP Pp
p pP pp
• Though the allele order of the two genotypes Pp and pP are different, they are the exact same –
Possible genotypes in this offspring are PP, pp, pP, and Pp – PP, Pp, and pP have the same
phenotype effect of purple flowers because they contain at least one dominant allele )PP – The
pp genotype produces plants with white flowers and have both recessive alleles, only one
possibility out of three others, exactly was Mendel calculated as the dominant to recessive ratio
was, 3:1
I. What Are the Chances?
• Offspring are equally likely to inherit either allele from either parent similar to a coin toss
which has a fifty percent chance you'll get either side and has a completely random event
• Probability: The mathematical chance that an event will occur – the probability of tossing tails
in a coin toss is ½, meaning half the number of times you toss the coin you will get tails – To
express probability as a percentage, divide numerator of fraction by denominator and multiply
the answer by 100
½ x 100 = 50%
• To find probability you will toss two heads in a row, multiply the probability of the two events
½x½=¼
• The percentage would be ¼ x 100 which equals 25%
• This same method is used to calculate probability for genotype inheritances for offspring – For
a pea plant to inherit the white flower trait it must receive a p allele from each parent, and due
to the 50% chance of inheriting either allele the probability of inheriting two p alleles from a Pp
x Pp cross is ¼ or 25%
• In 1865, Gregor published his findings to the scientific community, but it didn't get much
attention until more than thirty years after that Mendel finally was recognized
II. Meiosis
 • In the early 1900s scientists began experimenting as Gregor Mendel had done, and though they
had learned something they didn't know, they found Mendel's forgotten paper and realized that
it was actually an old discovery – Genes were still a mystery though and no one knew how they
could pass information from one cell to another or where they were located in – Understanding
reproduction helped answer these questions
A. Two Kinds of Reproduction
• Two types of reproduction: asexual and sexual – In asexual reproduction, only one parent cell is
needed – The internal structures of that cell are copied through mitosis and it divides, producing
exact copies of the original parent cell – Most single-celled organisms and cells in a human
body use this method to reproduce – In sexual reproduction, sex cells of parents are used – Sex
cells: The parent cells that join together, not separate in two like in asexual reproduction, to
create one new individual one – Human body cells have 46 chromosomes/23 homologous
chromosomes – Homologous chromosomes: Chromosomes with matching information –
Human sex cells only have 23 chromosomes, half of the norm – Sperm: Male sex cells –
Eggs/Ova: Female sex cells – Each sperm and egg has only one of the chromosomes from each
homologous pair
• Sex cells have half the normal number of chromosomes because when an egg and sperm join,
each parent donates ½ of a homologous pair of chromosomes, 11.5 homologous chromosomes
or 23 chromosomes, so that when they combine, the offspring will have a normal 23
homologous chromosomes or 46 chromosomes so that the body will grow and function properly
• Meiosis: The process of producing new sex cells with half the usual number of chromosomes –
When sex cells are made, chromosomes copy one and the nucleus divides twice, causing sperm
and eggs to have half the number of chromosomes in a normal cell
B. Meanwhile, Back at the Lab
• Walter Sutton: Young graduate made an observation studying sperm cells in grasshoppers with
the knowledge of Mendel's studies that the egg and sperm must each contribute the same
amount of information to offspring, explaining the 3:1 ratio found in second generations – He
also knew that though eggs and sperm were different, they both had chromosomes located in a
nucleus, so by observing meiosis, understanding Mendel's work, and thinking, he realize Genes
are located on chromosomes (mitosis revisited chart in next page)
C. Meiosis in Eight Easy Steps
(meiosis chart in next page)
• Different types of living things have different numbers of chromosomes

Mitosis (revisited) Meiosis

1. Each of the long strands (chromosomes) make a 1. Before meiosis begins, chromosomes are in
copy of itself threadlike form. Each chromosome makes one
identical copy of itself, forming two exact halves
 called chromatids. Chromosomes thicken and
shorten into a form that is visible under a
microscope and the nuclear membrane disappears.
2. Each chromosome consists of two identical 2. Each chromosome is now made up of two
copies called chromatids. Chromosomes thicken chromatids, an original and a copy. Similar
and shorten. chromosomes pair with one another to make
homologous chromosomes that line up at the
equator of the cell.
3. The nuclear membrane dissolve and 3. The chromosomes separate from their
chromosomes line up along the center equator of homologous partners and move to opposite ends
the cell. of cell.
4. Chromatids pull apart. 4. The nuclear membrane re-forms and cell
divides. Paired chromatids are still joined.
5. The nuclear membrane forms around separated 5. Each cell contains one member of each
chromatids. Chromosomes unwind and the cell homologous chromosome pair. The chromosomes
divides. are not copied again between two cell divisions.
6. Result: Two identical copies of the original cell 6. The chromosomes line up at the equator of each
created. cell.
7. Chromatids pull apart and move to opposite
ends of cell. Nuclear membrane forms around
separated chromosomes and cells divide.
8. Result: Four new cells form from the original
single cell, each having half the number of
chromosome present in the original cell.