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PATTERNS of INHERITANCE
MENDELIAN
What is the physical basis of inheritance?
Inheritance is the process by which the characteristics of individuals are passed
to their offspring.
Chromosomes are made up of DNA together with various proteins.
Genes are parts of chromosomes.
Inheritance occurs when genes are transmitted from parent t offspring.
A. Genes are sequences of nucleotides at specific locations on chromosomes
Locus a genes physical location on a chromosome (plural: loci)
Alleles different nucleotide sequence at the same locus on two homologous
chromosomes.
B. An organisms two alleles may be the same or different
Homozygous both homologous chromosomes have the same allele at a locus
Heterozygous homologous chromosomes have different alleles at a locus
How did Gregor Mendel lay the foundation for modern genetics?
Gregor Mendel an Austrian monk; before settling down as a monk in the
monastery of St. Thomas in Brunn, he attended the University of Vienna for two
years. He studied many subjects including botany and mathematics. At St.
Thomas, Mendel used this training to carry out a groundbreaking series of
experiments on inheritance in the common edible pea.
A. Doing it right: the Secrets of Mendels Success
Mendels choice of the edible pea as an experimental subject was critical to the
success of his experiments.
o Self-fertilization Each pea flower normally supplies its own pollen, so
the egg cells in each flower are fertilized by sperm from the pollen of the
same flower.
o Cross-fertilization mating of two plants
Mendels experimental design was simple but brilliant. Rather than looking at the
entire plant, he chose to study individual characteristics that had unmistakably
different forms, such as white versus purple flowers. He also worked with one
trait at a time.
How are single traits inherited?
Mendel cross fertilized a white-flowered pea plant with a purple-flowered one.
This was the parental generation, denoted by the letter P. When he grew the
resulting seeds, he found that all the first generation offspring (first filial or F1)
produced purple flowers.
Mendel then allowed the F1 flowers to self fertilize, collected the seeds, and
planted them the next spring. In the second generation (F2), about of the
plants had purple flowers and had white flowers.
Genes that are on one sex chromosome but not on the other are said to be sexlinked.
Drosophila or fruit fly eye color