Principles of inheritance

Mendel, Jonann Gregor was a minister of religion, a monk in the Augustinian monastery at Brunn in
Moravia, Austra. Mendel lived between 1822 and 1884. Before him little knowledge existed of the
nature of biological inheritance, this was so until orb up to the first half of the 19 th century. However, the
year 1865 marked the foundation of modern knowledge in the subject. This was a result of Mendel’s
careful planned and successfully executed series of experiment (where he used garden pea Pisum
sativum) from which he was able to arrive at concrete ideas or theories on the manner of inheritance of
character between parents and offsprings. Such theories are by now called the Mendelian laws of
inheritance.

Data of Mendel’s experiment

Contrasting characters No of dominants No of recessives ratio

-Smooth vs wrinkled (seeds) 5474 1850 2.96:1

-Yellow vs green (seeds) 6022 2001 3.01:1

-Violet-red vs white (flower) 705 224 3.15:1

-Inflated vs Constricted (pod) 882 299 2.95:1

-Axial Vs Terminal (position of 651 207 3.14:1

flower)

-Green vs yellow (colour of pods) 428 152 2.82:1

-Tall vs dwarf (stem). 787 277 2.84:1

 14,949 5,010 2.98:1

74.9% 25.1%

Monohybrid cross

Dihybrid cross

Observations and conclusion of Mendel

I certain factors now called gene are responsible for the biological characters observed in living
organisms.

II Each character or trait is determined by at least a pair of such factors (a pair of alleles)

III the two factors (two alleles) responsible for each trait separate out during the formation of gametes.
Only one of the factors (allele) could be and is carried by or goes to each gamete under normal
conditions.

IV the two alleles of an individual plant separate with equal probability into gametes.

V those traits that appeared unchanged in the F1 heterozygous offsprings are called dominant and those
traits that disappeared in the F1 heterozygous offspring are called recessive.

VI the factors are particulate, they remain unaltered from generation to generation; the reason why the
traits they influence reappear in subsequent generation.

VII Gametes are responsible for the transmission of the factors and therefore of the corresponding traits
from parents to offspring.

VIII The principle of independent assortment is really an extension of the principle of segregation. The
principle of segregation states that the two alleles of a locus separate when gametes are formed; the
principle of independent assortment states that, when these two alleles separate, their separation is
independent of the separation of alleles at other loci.

Mendelism / Laws of Mendel : Mendel’s cross breeding experiments with garden peas showed
certain numerical relations among the progeny. The relationship between the character pairs and the
kinds and the ratio of the progeny is known as Mendelism. Mendelism was not a theory of hereditary
origin, but it was a theory of the manner in which inheritance had taken place. Mendelism can be
summarized in the following laws which are called Mendel’s laws of inheritance.
1. The law of segregation or the law of purity of gametes: It states that when a pair of alleles /
allelomorphs is brought together in a hybrid (F1) they remain together without contaminating each
other and they separate or segregate from each other into a gamete in a complete and pure form during
the formation of gametes. The law is universal in its application and it has been found to occur in plants
as well as animals.

2. Law of independent assortment: The factors in an allelomorphic pair separates independently to the
separation of factors in the other allelomorphic pair.

3. Law of Dominance: States that in a hybrid one factor of the allelomorphic pair expresses itself
completely over the other.

4. Law of unit characters: State that each factor (gene) controls the inheritance of single character.
These factors occur in pairs in each diploid organism.

Predicting the outcome of genetic crosses using punnett square.

The Punnett square

The Punnett square was developed by English geneticist Reginald C. Punnett in 1917. A Punnett square is
constructed by drawing a grid, putting the gametes produced by one parent along the upper edge and
the gametes produced by the other parent down the left side. Each cell (a block within the Punnett
square) contains an allele from each of the corresponding gametes, generating the genotype of the
progeny produced by fusion of those gametes. The Punnett square can be used to determine the results
of a genetic cross.

Testcross
A testcross is a cross between an individual with an unknown genotype and one with a homozygous
recessive genotype. The outcome of the testcross can reveal the unknown genotype.

A useful tool for analyzing genetic crosses is the testcross, in which one individual of unknown genotype
is crossed with another individual with a homozygous recessive genotype for the trait in question. The
diagram below illustrates a testcross (as well as a backcross). A testcross tests, or reveals, the genotype
of the first individual. Suppose you were given a tall pea plant with no information about its parents.
Because tallness is a dominant trait in peas, your plant could be either homozygous (TT) or heterozygous
(Tt), but

you would not know which. You could determine its genotype by performing a testcross. If the plant
were homozygous (TT), a testcross would produce all tall progeny (TT x tt all Tt); if the plant were
heterozygous (Tt), the testcross would produce half tall progeny and half short progeny (Tt x tt 1/2Tt
and 1/2tt). When a testcross is performed, any recessive allele in the unknown genotype is expressed in
the progeny, because it will be paired with a recessive allele from the homozygous recessive parent.
Reasons behind Mendel’s choice of pea plant for his experiment

Mendel’s experiments: Mendel chose garden pea (Pisum sativum) as the plant material for his
experiments, since it has the following advantages.

1. Convenience of handling: Peas could be grown easily either in field or in pots and each plant occupies
only a small space.

2. Controlled mating: The flower structure of pea ensures self pollination, which was experimentally
verified by Mendel. Individual pea plants are highly inbred displaying little if any genetic variation from
one generation to the next. However since the pea flowers are relatively large, emasculation and
pollination is quite easy. Therefore, crossing could be carried out easily.

3. Short life cycle: Peas complete their life cycle from seed to seed within 70 days, thus producing many
generations in rapid succession.

4. Large number of fertile off-springs: Hybrids resulted from crossing two pure strains (true breeding)
were perfectly fertile and more in number. Pea seeds are large in size and do not have any problem in
germination.

5. Presence of variation: Peas have many sharply defined inherited differences like plant height (Tall vs.
dwarf), seed shape (round vs wrinkled) etc. In the available varieties, several characters had two
contrasting forms, which were easily distinguishable from each other. This permitted an easy
classification of F2 and F3 progeny from various crosses into clear-cut classes

Reasons for success of Mendel:

1. The experiments were very well designed and conducted with great care and skill.

2. The choice of his experimental material, the common garden pea.

3. Mendel studied the inheritance of only one pair of contrasting characters at a time.

4. The characters he chose were well defined and simple; each with only two contrasting forms Eg: Seed
coat colour of peas is either green or yellow, with no intermediate types.

5. The seven characters selected by Mendel showed qualitative inheritance.

6. The contrasting forms of each of the seven characters were governed by a single gene and in each
case one form was completely dominant over other.

7. Of the seven characters studied by Mendel, the genes for two were located in one chromosome,
while three other were present in another chromosome.
8. His greatest innovation was to count the number of progeny in each category to emerge from a given
cross for every generation.

9. His knowledge on mathematics was a definite asset for the interpretation of his findings after
subjecting the results to more refined mathematical analysis.

10. He maintained particulars of pedigree records, which gave him the exact ancestry of any given plant.