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Introduction to Genetics

Genetics is the study of heredity


The inheritance of traits
A trait is a characteristic passed from parent to
offspring. Some human traits include:
In the 1800s Gregor Mendel used pea
plants to study the inheritance of traits
A trait is a specific characteristic that varies
between one individual in a population to
another

When fertilization takes place it,


produces a new cell

Pea plants self fertilize so they inherit


their own characteristics

These are true breeding and


produce purebred offspring
Mendel removed the male parts of the pea flowers
and made controlled crosses between plants with
different traits

This is called cross pollination


Cross pollination produces seeds that have two
different parents
Mendel studied seven traits in the pea plants

He chose these traits because they show only one of the two
contrasting characteristics
The different forms of a gene that
produce traits
Are called alleles
The first cross breeding of different parent
plants creates a hybrid filial
Also called F1 generation
Crosses between parents with different traits
are called hybrids
When Mendel crossed true breeding tall pea
plants with true breeding short plants he
created a hybrid
Mendel crossed tall and short pea plants to create a hybrid
All of the offspring in the F1 generation were tall because the allele
for the tall trait was dominant over the allele for the short trait
Did the allele for the recessive trait disappear?

When he let the F1 generation self pollinate the recessive trait re-appeared
At some point, the recessive allele segregated from the dominant allele
When Mendel repeated other crosses he obtained similar results
Which traits for the pea color and parakeet color are recessive?
How do you know?
Mendel realized that the principal of probability can be used
to predict the outcome of genetic crosses

Mendel concluded that traits are inherited


through the passing of factors from
parents to offspring

Today these chemical factors that


determine traits are called genes

The principal of dominance states that


some alleles are dominant and some
are recessive
This chart shows the
segregation of alleles during a
cross between two hybrid
parents
The capital letter T represents the
dominant allele

The lower case letter t represents


the recessive allele

Punnett squares can be used to predict and compare genetic variations


that may result from a cross

Shows that the genes for traits sort independently


Phenotype and Genotype
Organisms that have two identical alleles for a trait
are called homozygous (TT), or (tt)
These are known as purebreds
(TT) is homozygous dominant
(tt) is homozygous recessive
Organisms that have two different alleles for the
same trait are heterozygous (Tt)
These are known as hybrids
An organisms physical characteristics is called the
phenotype
The genetic makeup discussed above is called the
genotype
A one factor Punnett square (monohybrid cross) follows one
gene during a cross
A two factor Punnett square (dihybrid cross) follows two
different genes from one generation to the next

Mendel found that traits would follow the laws of probability and show
independent assortment
Found that different traits can segregate independently during fertilization
Intermediate inheritance
Purely dominant and recessive traits
are rare in nature
Many genes show an intermediate
inheritance
Incomplete dominance is when neither
allele dominates over the other
Shows a blending of the two traits
When different dominant traits are crossed and both are present
in the offspring this is co-dominance

A cross between a black chicken (BB) and a white rooster (WW)

Producing a speckled offspring (BW)


a second type of co-dominance is human blood type

Like type AB blood


When two or more alleles for a trait exist in a population the
gene has multiple alleles

Fur color in rabbits has multiple alleles

Blood type in humans also has multiple alleles


Traits controlled by two or more genes are called polygenetic traits

Human skin color is a polygenetic trait, over 4 genes are


involved in determining skin color

Eye color is also polygenetic


The environment can also have an effect on gene expression

Seasonal coat color in


foxes and seasonal wing
coloration on butterflies

Hydrangea flower color to


soil pH, goby fish change
sex in male dominated
populations are all
examples of gene
expression responding to
environmental conditions
Another scientist that tried to advance the study of genetics
was Thomas Morgan

He used fruit flies called drosophila


melanogaster
They produced large numbers of offspring in
a very short time
Only have 8 chromosomes to track
He found that Mendels principals also
applied to the flies
The basics of Mendelian genetics can also
apply to human genetics
The farther apart two genes are on a chromosome, the more likely they
are separated by a crossover

The frequency of crossing-over between genes can be used to construct


genetic maps

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