LECTURE 12

GENETICS
 Introduction
• Genetics is the scientific study of heredity and
variation in living organisms.
• Heredity is the process in which a parent
passes certain genes onto their children.
• Children inherit their biological parents’ genes
that express specific traits, such as some
physical characteristics, natural talents and
genetic disorders.
• The passing on of genetic instructions from
generation to generation is called inheritance
 Definition of Genetic terms
• Gene: It is the basic unit of inheritance for a
given characteristic.
• A gene occupies a specific location on
chromosome known as a locus.
• A gene usually consist of a pair alleles for each
characteristic.
• Alleles: are different forms of the same gene
for a trait and occupy the same relative
position on a pair of homologous
chromosomes.
• One allele is of paternal origin and the other is
of maternal origin.
• As such an allele is responsible for
determining contrasting characteristics of the
same gene.
• Example a locus for the gene that codes for
the height characteristic or trait in pea plants
will have an allele that may code for a tall
plant or for a short plant.
• Since a pea plant has two homologous
chromosomes each carrying this gene, there will
be two alleles.
• If both alleles coding for a particular
characteristic (i.e height) are identical, then the
organism is homozygous for that characteristic.
(homo=same)
e.g TT or tt .
• If the two alleles coding for a characteristic (i.e
height) are different, then the organism is
heterozygous. (hetero=different)
• e.g Tt
• Genotype: It is the genetic composition of an
organism with respect to alleles under
consideration.
• e.g TT , Tt or tt can be genotype of a pea
plants.
• Phenotype: This is the observable
characteristics (appearance) of an organism
resulting from the genotype.
• Often times the phenotype results from the
interaction between the genotype and the
environment.
• Example of phenotype include colour or
height of an organism. e.g. red flower, yellow
maize kernel, tall sorghum plants.
• An allele may either be dominant or recessive.
• Dominant allele: An allele which influences
the phenotype even in the presence of an
alternative allele.
• Dominant allele will mask or cover the effect
of the recessive allele.
• A dominant allele is represented by a capital
letter, for example, T for tall
• Recessive allele: An allele which influence the
phenotype ONLY in the presence of similar
alternative allele.
• Meaning a recessive allele can NOT expresses
itself when the dominant allele is present.
• A recessive allele is represented by a small
letter, for example, t for short.
• In genetic diagrams, dominant alleles are
presented in capitals, recessive in small
letters.
• P (Parental)- Generation: They are true breeding
parents whose genotype is homozygous.
• True breeding means that if you cross two
individuals that are homozygous for the same
characteristic all the resulting offsprings will
show this same genotype and phenotype.
• The exception is if a mutation occurs.
• Heterozygotes on the other hand are not true
breeders.
• F1 generation (first filial generation): The
generation produced by crossing homozygous
parental stocks.
• F2 generation: The generation produced when
two F1 organisms are crossed (self pollinated
offspring of F1 generation).
• Character – This is a heritable feature that
varies among individuals(hair colour, skin
colour, height, body type etc).
• Trait - variations of characters (white or black
colour, short or tall)
• True breeding- self pollination leads to
offspring of the same variety (all white or all
purple flowers)
• Hybridization - the cross pollination of two
true breeding varieties of plants.
• Monohybrid cross: This is a genetic cross in
which one gene is being transmitted at a time
from parents to offsprings through mating.
• Dihybrid cross: This is a genetic cross in which
two genes are being transmitted at once from
parents to offspring through mating.
• Test cross: This is a genetic crossing which an
organism, with an unknown genotype is
mated (crossed) a homozygous recessive
organism to determine the unknown
genotype.
 Mendelian Genetics
• Gregor Mendel is regarded as the father of
genetic.
• He is the first scientist to be credited with
giving proper explanation regarding the way in
which characters or traits are inherited.
• He was an Austrian monk who developed the
particulate theory after performing a series of
ingenious experiments in the 1860s.
• He used garden peas in his experiments on to
formulate laws which explained the manner of
inheritance of characters.
 MENDEL’S EXPERIMENTS
• Mendel chose pure-breeding pea plants to
study the inheritance of several
characteristics.
• A pure-breeding plant is obtained after many
generations of self-pollination.
• They produce identical offspring and the
offspring show the same traits as their
parents.
• In one of his experiment, Mendel chose two
parent plants, one a pure-breeding tall plant
and other a pure breeding short plant.
• He called this generation the parental
generation or P generation.
• He carried out cross-pollination on the two
plants by transferring the pollen grains from
the tall plant onto the stigma of the short
plant.
• He collected the seed, planted them and
found that all grew to become tall plants.
• The results of the parental cross appeared in
the first generation called the first filial
generation or F1 generation.
 PUNNETT SQUARE
• A punnett square is another method that can
be used to determine the possible outcome of
a monohybrid cross and their expected
frequencies.
• A punnett square can be set up as follows;
1. Set up a 2 by 2 Punnett square.
2. Write the alleles for parent 1 on one side of
the Punnett square.
3. Write the alleles from parent 2 on the other
Punnett square.
4. Cross the gametess and fill in the blank boxes.
• Mendel then allowed the plants of the F1
generation to self pollinate to produce the
second filial generation or F2 generation.
• He discovered that when he planted the seeds
from the F2 generation, about three quarters
of the offspring were tall and one quarter
was short.
• He found that the ratio tall to short was 3:1.
• Mendel found similar results when he crossed
pure-breeding pea plants for each of the other
characteristics
• He studied a total of seven characters with
contrasting traits.
• This type of cross where a single pair of
characteristics is contrasted is called a
monohybrid cross
• By convention (international agreement), the
first letter of the dominant character is used
as a symbol for the gene
Seven pure breed characters studied
by Mendel
• For all the seven monohybrid crosses he
performed he found that in the second (F2)
generation, the seemingly lost trait showed up
again.
• e.g wrinkled seeds showed up again in the
second generation of offspring.
• They comprised approximately one-fourth of
all of the offspring of that cross.
• Mendel explained this result by saying that
the lost form of each trait was cancelled or
dominated by the expressed form.
 Mendel’s conclusion
(a) Inheritance depends on the transfer of
heredity factors from parents to offspring.
There is a heredity factor that determines a
particular characteristic.
(b) Each characteristic is controlled by a pair of
factors.
(c) The factors are passed from generation to
generation unaltered.
(d) The factors may be dominant or recessive.
Some factors are not expressed in every
generation.
(e)The factors segregate or separate during
gamete formation so that each gamete
contains only one of the factors for a given
characteristic
 Reason for choosing Garden peas
(Pisum sativum) for his experiments
1. They are easy to cultivate and grow even small
areas like pots.
2. They are easy to pollinate since they self
pollinated.
3. They have a short life cycle hence several
generation can be produced within a short
time.
4. Produces large numbers of hybrid offsprings
which are fertile.
5. They have several sharply defined variations i.e
height, seed shape etc
 Reasons for Mendel successful
experimentation
1. Preliminary investigation was conducted to
familiarise with the garden peas.
2. The experiments were carefully planned and
focused only on one variable.
3.Accurate records were kept of all experiments
and results obtained.
4. Significant data were obtained to have
statistical significance.
5. Contrasting forms of the chosen characters
showed dominance of the other.
END OF LECTURE!
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