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Incomplete Dominance

Incomplete dominance is a form of intermediate inheritance where neither allele is fully expressed over the other. This results in an intermediate or blended phenotype rather than one that matches one parent. For example, in roses the red and white alleles result in pink flowers when combined rather than red or white. Monohybrid crosses between red and white snapdragon flowers produce pink flowers in the F1 generation and a ratio of 1:2:1 for red, pink, and white flowers in F2, showing the blending effect of incomplete dominance. Examples in humans include curly/straight hair resulting in wavy hair and carriers of Tay-Sachs disease showing intermediate traits.

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314 views

Incomplete Dominance

Incomplete dominance is a form of intermediate inheritance where neither allele is fully expressed over the other. This results in an intermediate or blended phenotype rather than one that matches one parent. For example, in roses the red and white alleles result in pink flowers when combined rather than red or white. Monohybrid crosses between red and white snapdragon flowers produce pink flowers in the F1 generation and a ratio of 1:2:1 for red, pink, and white flowers in F2, showing the blending effect of incomplete dominance. Examples in humans include curly/straight hair resulting in wavy hair and carriers of Tay-Sachs disease showing intermediate traits.

Uploaded by

Rodrick Ramos
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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INCOMPLETE DOMINANCE

Incomplete Dominance Definition

‘’ Incomplete Dominance is a form of intermediate inheritance in which one allele for a particular trait is
not expressed completely over its paired allele.’’

What is Incomplete Dominance?

Incomplete dominance is a form of Gene interaction in which both alleles of a gene at a locus are
partially expressed, often resulting in an intermediate or different phenotype.It is also known as partial
dominance.

For eg., in roses, the allele for red colour is dominant over the allele for white colour.But, the
heterozygous flowers with both the alleles are pink in colour.

Mechanism of Incomplete Dominance

Incomplete dominance occurs because neither of the two alleles is completely dominant over the
other.This results in a phenotype that is a combination of both.

Gregor Mendel conducted experiments on pea plants.He studied on seven characters with contrasting
traits and all of them showed a similar pattern of inheritance. Based on this,he generalized the law of
inheritance.

Later,researchers repeated Mendel’s experiment on other plants. Shockingly,they noted that the f1
generation showed variation from the usual pattern of inheritance. The monohybrid cross resulted in f1
Progeny which didn’t show any resemblance to either of the parents,but an intermediate progeny.

Monohybrid cross was done between the red and white coloured flowers of snapdragon
plant.Consider,pure breed of the red flower has RR pair of alleles and that for the white flower is rr.

Firstly,true-breeding red (RR) and white (rr) coloured flowers of snapdagon were crossed.The F1
generation produced pink coloured flower with Rr pair of alleles.

Then the F1 progeny was self-pollinated.This resulted in red (RR),pink(Rr) and white (rr) flowers in the
ratio of 1:2:1.

Recollect that the genotype ratio of F2 generation in the monohybrid cross by mendel also gave the
same ratio of 1:2:1.However,the phenotype ratio has changed from 3:1 to 1:2:1.The reason for this
variation is the incomplete dominance of the allele R over the allele.This led to the blending of colour in
flowers.
Concept of Dominance

In genetics,Dominance is a relationship between alleles of one gene. In order to understand the concept
of the dominance of alleles, we need to know more about genes.

So far we know that genes are a hereditary unit in organism which exist as a pair of alleles in diploid
organisms.These pair of alleles may or may not be similar.That is, a heterozygous gene has two
dissimilar pairs of alleles while homozygous have identical ones.

Heterozygous alleles carry different information on traits.When we say one trait is dominant over the
other,there can be two reasons:

Either is non-functional , or is less active than the normal allele

Incomplete Dominance and Codominance

Incomplete Dominance and Codominance are different from each other.

In Codominance , both alleles present on a gene are expressed in the phenotype.A flower showing
codominance will have patches of red and whte instead of a uniformly pink flower.

In incomplete Dominance , the F2 generation from heterozygous plant will have a ratio 1:2:1 with the
phenotypes red , white and spotted flowers.

The humans with AB blood type also show codominance where the alleles for both blood types A and B
are expressed.

Examples of Incomplete Dominance

Examples of incomplete dominance are metioned below:

In Humans

The child of parents each with curly hair and straight hair will always have wavy hair.Carriers of Tay-
Sachs disease exhibit incomplete dominance.

In other Animals

The Andalusian chicken shows incomplete dominance in its feather colour.

When the rabbits with long and short furs are bred , the offspring produced will have medium fur
length.

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