GLOBAL INDIAN INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL

UPPAL, HYDERABAD
GRADE – X, BIOLOGY, CH-8: HEREDITY

Heredity refers to the transmission of characters from parents to offsprings. An inherited trait is a
particular genetically determined feature that distinguishes a person from the others for example;
attached or free ear lobes in human beings.

Rules for the inheritance of traits:

Mendel’s contribution: The rules for inheritance of traits in human beings are related to the fact
that both mother and father contribute an equal amount of genetic material i.e. DNA to their
offspring. So an offspring will get two versions of that trait from the two parents. Mendel worked
out rules for inheritance of these traits. Gregor Johann Mendel regarded as the ‘Father of
Genetics’ performed his experiments with garden peas (Pisum sativum) in the garden behind his
monastery. He observed a number of contrasting characters in garden peas and observed their
inheritance.

Some important terms:

1. Chromosomes are long thread-like structures present in the nucleus of a cell which contain
hereditary information of the cell in the form of genes.

2. DNA is a chemical in the chromosome which carries the traits in a coded form.

3. Gene is the part of a chromosome which controls a specific biological function.

4. Contrasting characters: A pair of visible characters such as tall and dwarf, white and violet
flowers, round and wrinkled seeds, green and yellow seeds etc.

5. Dominant trait: The character which expresses itself in a (F1) generation is dominant trait.
Example : Tallness is a dominant character in pea plant.

6. Recessive trait: The character which does not express itself but is present in a generation is
recessive trait. Ex. dwarfism in the pea plant.

7. Homozygous: A condition in which both the genes of same type are present for example; an
organism has both the genes for tallness it is expressed as TT and genes for dwarfness are written
as tt.

8. Heterozygous: A condition in which both the genes are of different types for example; an
organism has genes Tt it means it has a gene for tallness and the other for dwarfness only tall
character is expressed.

9. Genotype: It is genetic makeup of an individual for example; A pure tall plant is expressed as
TT and hybrid tall as Tt.
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UPPAL, HYDERABAD
10. Phenotype: It is external appearance of the organism for example; a plant having Tt
composition will appear tall although it has gene for dwarfness.

11. Homologous pair of characters are those in which one member is contributed by the father
and the other member by the mother and both have genes for the same character at the same
position.

Mendel’s Experiment: Mendel started his experiment on the pea plants. He conducted first
monohybrid and then dihybrid crosses.

Monohybrid Cross: The cross in which Mendel showed inheritance of dominant and recessive
characters is monohybrid cross. To observe inheritance of single pair of contrasting characters

He took pure tall (genotype TT) and pure dwarf (genotype tt) pea plants and cross pollinated
them to obtain first generation or first filial generation. In this figuration (F1 generation) he
obtained only tall plants. This meant that only one of the parental traits was seen, not the mixture
of the two. The plants of F generation or progeny are then self pollinated to obtain F2 generation
or progeny. Now all plants were not tall. He obtained 75% tall plants and 25% dwarf plants i.e.
the phenotypic ratio was 3:1. This indicates that in the F, generation both tall and dwarf traits
were inherited but tallness expressed itself. Tallness is a dominant trait and dwarfness is a
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UPPAL, HYDERABAD
recessive trait. F2 generation has a genotypic ratio of 1 : 2 : 1 of three types of plants represented
by TT, Tt and tt as shown in the cross.

Conclusion: Phenotypic ratio—Tall : Dwarf 3 : 1

Genotype ratio—Pure Tall : Hybrid Tall : Pure Dwarf 1 : 2 : 1

Law of Dominance: When parents having pure contrasting characters are crossed then only one
character expresses itself in the Ft generation. This character is the dominant character and the
character/factor which cannot express itself is called the recessive character.

Dihybrid Cross: Mendel also carried out experiments to observe inheritance of two pairs of
contrasting characters, which is called dihybrid cross. He cross breed pea plants bearing round
green seed with plants bearing wrinkled and yellow seeds. In the Fx generation he obtained all
round and yellow seeds it means round and yellow traits of seeds are dominant features while
wrinkled and green are recessive. He self-pollinated the plants of F: generation to obtain F2
generation, he obtained four different types of seeds round yellow, round green, wrinkled yellow
and wrinkled green in the ratio of 9 : 3 : 3 : 1. He concluded that traits are independently
inherited

Conclusion

 Round and yellow seeds-9.

 Round and green seeds-3.
 Wrinkled and yellow seeds-3.
 Wrinkled and green seeds-1.

How do traits get expressed?

Cellular DNA is the information source for making proteins in the cell.
A part of DNA that provides information for one particular protein is called a gene for that
protein for example; the height of a plant depends upon the growth hormone which is in turn
controlled by the gene. If the gene is efficient and more growth hormone is secreted the plant
will grow tall. If the gene for that particular protein gets altered and less of it is secreted when the
plant will remain short. Both the parents contribute equally to the DNA of next generation during
sexual reproduction. They actually contribute a copy of the same gene for example; when tall
plant is crossed with short plant the gametes will have single gene either for tallness or for
shortness. F1 generation will get one gene for tallness and other for shortness also.
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How do germ cells i.e. gametes get single set of genes from parents who have two copies in
them ?
Each gene set is present, not as a single long thread of DNA, but as separate independent pieces
each called a chromosome. Each cell gets two copies of the chromosome, one from each parent.
Each germ cell or gamete has one copy of it because there is reductional division in the sex
organs at the time of formation of gametes. When fertilization takes place normal number of
chromosomes is restored in the progeny ensuring the stability of DNA of the species.

How is the sex of a newborn individual determined?

It is the process by which sex of a newborn can be determined.

Different species use different strategies for this :

 In some animals the temperature at which fertilized eggs are kept determines whether the
developing animals will be males or females. This is called temperature-dependent sex
determination (TSD). Ex: Turtle
 Some animals like snails can change sex indicating that sex is not genetically determined.
 In human beings sex of the individual is determined genetically; means genes inherited
from the parents decide the sex of the offspring.
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Sex determination in human beings: In human beings, all chromosomes are not paired. 22
chromosomes are paired but one pair called sex chromosome is odd in not having a perfect pair
in males. Females have a perfect pair both represented by XX. On the other hand males have a
normal sized X but the other is short called Y so it is shown as XY. All gametes or ova formed
by the homogenetic female are similar i.e. have X chromosome. Males heterogenetic form two
types of sperms i.e. half with X chromosome and the other half with Y chromosome. Sex of the
baby will depend on fertilization. There are two possibilities :

Autosomes: Those chromosomes which do not play any role in role in sex determination.

Sex chromosomes: Those chromosomes which play a role in determining sex of the newborn.

 If the sperm having X chromosome fertilizes with ovum with X chromosome then the baby
will have XX chromosome and it will be female.
 If the sperm having Y chromosome fertilizes with ovum with X chromosome then the baby
will have XY chromosomes and it will be male.

Laws of Inheritance

Mendel proposed three laws:

 Law of Dominance
 The Law of Segregation
 Law of independent assortment
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Law of Dominance

This law states that in a heterozygous condition, the allele whose characters are expressed over the
other allele is called the dominant allele and the characters of this dominant allele are called
dominant characters. The characters that appear in the F1 generation are called as dominant
characters. The recessive characters appear in the F2 generation.

Law of Segregation

This law states that when two traits come together in one hybrid pair, the two characters do not mix
with each other and are independent of each other. Each gamete receives one of the two alleles
during meiosis of the chromosome.

Mendel’s law of segregations supports the phenotypic ratio of 3:1 i.e. the homozygous dominant
and heterozygous offsprings show dominant traits while the homozygous recessive shows the
recessive trait.

Law of Independent Assortment

This means that at the time of gamete formation, the two genes segregate independently of each
other as well as of other traits. Law of independent assortment emphasizes that there are separate
genes for separate traits and characters and they influence and sort themselves independently of the
other genes.

This law also says that at the time of gamete and zygote formation, the genes are independently
passed on from the parents to the offspring.

NCERT TB SOLUTIONS

1. If a trait A exists in 10% of a population of an asexually reproducing species and a trait B

exists in 60% of the same population, which trait is likely to have arisen earlier?
Trait B, because it is present in more members of the population. It is likely to have arisen
earlier and has now spread to 60% of the population. Trait A is new and has spread to only
10% of the population.

2. How does the creation of variations in a species promote survival?

The variations provide stability to the population of various species by preventing them from
getting wiped out during adverse conditions.
The natural environment also changes, and variations in species which become suited to the
environment help it to survive.
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3. How do Mendel’s experiments show that traits may be dominant or recessive?
Mendel took pea plants with contrasting characteristics tall plant and dwarf (or short) plant.
On cross pollination, he got all tall plants in first generation (F1). But by the self pollination
of F1 tall plants, the plants of second generation consisted of tall and short pants in the ratio
of 3 : 1. On the basis of these experiments, the characteristics appeared in first generation
were called dominant (i.e. tall plants) and the characteristics that did not appear were called
recessive (dwarf i.e. plants).

4. How do Mendel’s experiments show that traits are inherited independently?

Mendel took two pairs of alternate expression of two traits and carried out dihybrid crosses
by crossing them. The traits appeared in first generation were termed as dominant. When he
used these F1 progeny to generate F2 progeny by self-pollination plants of different types
were produced. In some plants both the traits were dominant, while in some plants both were
recessive and some plants exhibited mixed traits. This indicates that traits are inherited
independently.

5. A man with blood group A marries a woman with blood group O and their daughter has
blood group O. Is this information enough to tell you which of the traits – blood group A or
O – is dominant? Why or why not?
This information is not enough. This is because each individual is carrying two alleles. The
recessive trait can occur only when who alleles are similar. It blood group A is dominant and
O is recessive, then daughter can have blood group O only when both recessive alleles occur
together in mother, and father has one allele of O and other of A.
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6. How is the sex of the child determined in human beings ?

OR
“The sex of a newborn child is a matter of chance and none of the parents may be considered
responsible for it.” Justify this statement with the help of a flow chart showing determination
of sex of a newborn.
Half of the male gametes (sperms) carry X chromosome and other half carry Y
chromosomes. All the female gametes carry only X chromosomes. When a sperm fertilizes
an egg, the following situations become possible.

1. (i) When a sperm carrying X chromosome fertilises an egg that contains only X
chromosome), the resulting zygote develops into a female (XX condition).
2. (ii) When a sperm carrying Y chromosome fertilises an egg (that contains only X
chromosome), the resulting zygote develops into a male (XY condition).

Thus there are 50 – 50 chances of a male or female child and none of the parents may Sex
determination in humans be considered responsible for it.
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The sex-determination mechanism is shown alongside.

7. What are the different ways in which individuals with a particular trait may increase in a
population?
Different ways in which individuals with a particular trait may increase in a population are as
follow :

1. If it gives the benefit of survival through natural selection.

2. Due to a sudden increase in a particular trait in a population, i.e., by genetic drift.

8. Why are traits acquired during the life-time of an individual not inherited?
The traits acquired during the life-time are changes in the non-reproductive cells of the
organisms and are not capable of being passed on to the next generation.

9. Why are the small numbers of surviving tigers a cause of worry from the point of view of
genetics?
The small numbers of surviving tigers are a cause of worry from the point of view of genetics
because in tigers there are negligible genetic variations. Due to this they are not well adapted.
The rapid environmental changes cannot be favouable for them. If these changes are not
controlled, tigers would be wiped out.