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GENERAL GENETICS Notes 1

The document outlines a course on general genetics, covering topics such as heredity, variation, Mendel's laws, sex determination, genetic disorders, and the history of genetics. It explains the mechanisms of genetic inheritance and variation, including genotypic and somatic variations, and discusses significant historical milestones in genetic research. Additionally, it includes a group assignment focused on the risks associated with genetic engineering and GMO foods.

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8 views

GENERAL GENETICS Notes 1

The document outlines a course on general genetics, covering topics such as heredity, variation, Mendel's laws, sex determination, genetic disorders, and the history of genetics. It explains the mechanisms of genetic inheritance and variation, including genotypic and somatic variations, and discusses significant historical milestones in genetic research. Additionally, it includes a group assignment focused on the risks associated with genetic engineering and GMO foods.

Uploaded by

Bc De
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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ABT 300 GENERAL GENETICS

Course Outline

INTRODUCTION
Genetics is the study of heredity and variation in living organisms.
Heredity is the term used for transmission of traits from one generation to the next
generation. It is due to heredity that offspring look similar to their parents. It also
explains why dogs always give birth to puppies and never to kittens. The process of
heredity is universal among all living organisms. Genetic variation refers to the variation
in a population or species.
Genetics is the science which deals with the mechanisms responsible for similarities and
differences among closely related species. The term ‘genetic’ was coined by William
Bateson in 1905. It is derived from the Greek word ‘genesis’ meaning grow into or to
become. So, genetics is the study of heredity and hereditary variations, it is the study of
the transmission of body features: i.e., similarities and difference, from parents to
offspring and the laws related to this transmission.

Variation

Any differences present between individuals of any species, caused either by genetic
difference or by the effect of environmental factors, is called variation. Variation can be
shown in physical appearance, metabolism, behaviour, learning and mental ability, and
other obvious characters.

Types of Variation

Variations can be categorised into two types:

i. Genotypic variations: – Genotypic variations refer to the differences in the


genome, it may be due to structure or number of chromosomes present in the
cells or difference in the genetic constituents of the chromosomes. Skin, hair, eye
colour, height are some of the genotypic variations in animals. A variation can
only be confirmed as genotypic by doing cross-breeding experiments.
ii. Somatic variations: – Somatic variations are not hereditary. These are not due
to changes in the alleles or chromosomes. These are due to various factors such
as nutrition, climate and due to other social interactions.

Heredity

Heredity refers to the transmission of traits from parents to offsprings. Heredity is


responsible for the resemblance among individuals of the same species.

Mendel’s Laws of Heredity

Gregor Johann Mendel is known as the father of genetics. He was the first to show the
inheritance pattern of traits from one generation to the next generation. He did his research
on the garden pea, Pisum sativum. He selected 7 pairs of contrasting traits like the red and
yellow colour of the pod, round and wrinkled seeds, tall and short plants, etc. and
crossbred the plants to understand their inheritance pattern. Mendel gave three
fundamental laws of inheritance.
1. Law of dominance: States that in the heterozygous condition of the genotype for a
pair of alleles, the alleles which express itself phenotypically is dominant and the
one which can’t express is recessive.

2. Law of segregation: States that although the alleles of a character remain together
for a long time, they do not mix with each other and separate at the time of
gametogenesis so that each gamete receives only one allele of a trait, which is either
dominant or recessive. When tall pea plants of the F1 generation (obtained by
crossing homozygous tall and dwarf pea plants), are self-fertilised, we get tall and
dwarf plants in the ratio of 3:1.

3. Law of Independent assortment: States that when more than a pair of characters
are taken into consideration, alleles of a character can undergo any sort of
combination to give rise to a phenotype differing from both the parents.

Codominance

When two alleles lack the dominant-recessive association and thus the duo affects the
creature together.

The Chromosomal Theory of Inheritance

Both genes and chromosomes exist in sets of two. The homologous chromosome
contains the two alleles of a gene pair in the homologous sites. The coupling and split of
a set of chromosomes will cause a split in the set of genes (factor) they carry. This united
knowledge is termed the Chromosomal Theory of Inheritance.

Sex Determination

A particular nuclear arrangement was perceived by Henking. He perceived that this


particular nuclear arrangement was found in only fifty per cent of sperms. He termed this
body as x. Later, it was observed that the ova which only obtained the X chromosome
matured and were born as females and those that didn’t receive only X chromosomes
were born as males. Thus, the X- chromosome was termed a sex chromosome and the
remaining ones were termed autosomes.

The occurrence due to which a modification in DNA happens and causes a variation in
the phenotype and genotype of a creature is termed a Mutation.
Determination Of Sex
There are two different types of sexes, that participate in sexual reproduction. So it is
natural to find it confounding as from which sex the baby inherits, that results in the sex
of the child. There are several other procedures followed to determine the sex of a
newborn baby. Based on the environmental signals the sex of a baby can be determined.
In a few animal species, temperature plays a major role in sex determination. In other
animals, like snails, it is possible to change sex as they are not genetically processed. In
human beings, the sex of an individual is genetically determined. In other words, the genes
which are inherited from their parents decide the sex of the child.

Determining the Sex

To understand how the determination of sex happens, we need to know the following
process.

1. Humans have 23 pairs of chromosomes. Out of these 23 pairs, 22 pairs are


Autosomes and only one pair is the ‘Sex Chromosome’, which actively takes part in
the process of sex determination.
2. Both males and females carry two sets of sex chromosome.
3. Male has one X and one Y (XY) sex chromosome in which both are active
4. Female has both X (XX) sex chromosome in which one is active.
5. The XY sex-determination system is found in humans, mammals, in some insects,
and in few plant species.
6. All children will inherit an X chromosome from their mother, despite whether they
are a boy or girl. Thus, the sex of the children will be determined by the type of
chromosome inherited from their father.
7. A child who inherits Y chromosome will be a boy and who inherits X chromosome
will be a girl.
8. A male semen’s holds approximately 50 percent of Y sperm cells and other 50
percent of X sperm cells. Therefore, there are possibilities that men have three or
more children of a single-gender.
9.

Genetic Disorders

Disorders of a Mendelian nature include:

 Haemophilia.
 Sickle Cell Anaemia.
 Phenylketonuria.
Disorders of a chromosomal nature include:

 Down’s syndrome.
 Klinefelter’s Syndrome.
 Turners Syndrome.
Notations used in Breeding Experiments

The dominant trait – Upper case letter, e.g. Tallness is represented by ‘T’

The recessive trait – Lower case letter, e.g. Dwarfness by ‘t’

Homozygous – A pair of same alleles, e.g. TT (homozygous dominant) or tt (homozygous


recessive)

Heterozygous – Having different alleles of a trait, e.g. Tt


History of Genetics
• 1866- Genetics start to get attention when Mendel
• Experimented with green peas and published his findings
• 1910- Morgan revealed that the units of heredity are contained in a chromosome
• 1944- It is confirmed through studies on the bacteria that it was DNA that carried
the genetic information.
• 1953-Franklin and Wilkins study DNA by X-ray crystallography which
subsequently lead to unrevealing the double helical structure of DNA by Watson
and Crick
• 1960s- Smith demonstrate that the DNA can be cleaved by restriction enzymes
• 1966 -Gene transcription become reality
• 1975- Southern blot was invented
• 1977- DNA sequencing methodology discovered
• 1981-Genetic diagnosis of sickle cell disease was first shown to be feasible by Kan
and Chang
• 1985- PCR develop by Kary Mullis and Co-workers
• 2001-Draft of Human genome sequence was revealed

Relevance and applications of Genetics


 Group assignment:
Interrogate the dangers and risks associated with genetic engineering and
GMO foods. (30 marks)

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