What is genetics?

The scientific study of heredity

 Gregor Mendel

Born in 1822 in
Czechoslovakia.
Became a monk at a
monastery in 1843.
Taught biology and had
interests in statistics.
Also studied at the
University of Vienna
After returning to the
monastery he continued
to teach and worked in
the garden.
Between 1856 and 1863
he grew and tested over
28,000 pea plants
 Mendel’s Peas
Easy to grow.
Easily identifiable traits
Can work with large numbers of
samples
 Mendel’s experiments
The first thing Mendel did was create a
“pure” generation or true-breeding
generation.
He made sure that certain pea plants
were only able to self pollinate,
eliminating unwanted traits.
He did this by cutting away the stamen,
or male part of each flower
 Genes and dominance
Trait : a characteristic
Mendel studied seven of these traits
After Mendel ensured that his true-
breeding generation was pure, he then
crossed plants showing contrasting
traits.
He called the offspring the F1 generation
or first filial.
 What will happen when pure
yellow peas are crossed with
pure green peas?
All of the offspring
were yellow.
Hybrids = the offspring
of crosses between
parents with
contrasting traits
 What did Mendel
conclude?
Inheritance is determined by factors
passed on from one generation to another.
Mendel knew nothing about
chromosomes, genes, or DNA. Why?
These terms hadn’t yet been defined.
 What were Mendel’s
“factors”
The ‘factors” that Mendel mentioned
were the genes.
Each gene has different forms called
alleles
Mendel’s second principle stated that
some alleles are dominant and some
are recessive.
 Mendel’s second cross
He allowed the F1 generation to self-
pollinate thus producing the F2
generation.
Did the recessive allele completely
disappear?
What happened when he crossed two
yellow pea hybrid (F1) plants?
 Results:

¾ of the peas were yellow, ¼ of

the peas were green.
During the formation of the sex cells or
gametes, the alleles separated or
segregated to different gametes. (pollen
and egg)
Probability
The likelihood of a
particular event
occurring. Chance
Can be expressed
as a fraction or a
percent.
Example: coin flip.
 Punnett Square
Developed by
Reginald Punnett.
A diagram used to
show the probability
or chances of a
certain trait being
passed from one
generation to
another.
Reading Punnett squares
Gametes are placed above and to the
left of the square
Offspring are placed in the square.
Capital letters (Y) represent dominant
alleles.
Lower case letters (y) represent
recessive alleles.
Punnett square example
Homozygous = when an organism
possesses two identical alleles. ex.
 YY or yy
Heterozygous = when an organism
possesses different alleles. ex.
 Yy
 Phenotype vs genotype
Genotype Phenotype
 The genetic makeup Physical
 Symbolized with appearance of the
letters organism
 Tt or TT Expression of the
trait
Short, tall, yellow,
smooth, etc.
Probability and statistics
No one event has a greater chance of
occurring than another.
You cannot predict the precise outcome
of an individual event.
The more trials performed, the closer
the actual results to the expected
outcomes.
Punnett square review:
 Independent Assortment
The two factor cross. Example: color
and shape of peas.
F1 cross to produce the F2 generation
Ex RRYY x rryy
Round yellow mated with wrinkled green
• Offspring would all be hybrid for both
traits (RrYy)
 What is independent
assortment?
Alleles
separate
independently
during the
formation of
gametes.
 The dihybrid cross

Punnett square on board:

 Some exceptions to
Mendel’s principles:
Some alleles are neither
dominant nor recessive.
Many traits are controlled by
more than one gene (polygenic
traits)
 Incomplete dominance
A situation in which neither allele is
dominant.
When both alleles are present a “new”
phenotype appears that is a blend of
each allele.
Alleles will be represented by capital
letters only.
 Japanese four-o-clock
flowers
Red flower plant genotype = RR
White flower plant genotype = WW
Pink flower plant genotype = RW
What happens when a red
flower is crossed with a
white flower?
According to
Mendel either
some white and
some red or all
offspring either
red or white.
All are pink
 Codominance
When two alleles both appear in the
phenotype.
Usually signified using superscripts.
example: color of hair coat in cattle.
crcr = red hairs
cwcw = white hairs
crcw = roan coat (mixture of both colors)
Roan cattle inheritance
Multiple allele inheritance
When two or more alleles contribute to
the phenotype.
Human blood types: A,B,O and AB
A and B are codominant to each other.
Both A and B are dominant over O.
 Human Blood types:
TYPE A
Allele = IA
Blood cells
have small
antigens on the
surface.
TYPE B
Allele = IB
Cells coated
with type B
antigens
TYPE AB
genotype = IAIB
Blood cells
contain both
types of antigens
Known as
universal recipient
TYPE O
Allele = i
No antigens on
the surface of
the blood cells
Known as
universal donor
 6 different genotypes
IAIA Type A
IAIB Type AB
IBIB Type B
IBi Type B
IAi Type A
ii Type O
How common are the
different blood types?
 Sample Problem:

A man with type AB blood

marries a woman with type B
blood whose father has type O
blood. What are the chances
that they have a child with type
A blood? Type AB?
 Polygenic traits
Traits controlled by two or more
genes.
Examples:
Human height,

eye and skin

color
 Let’s practice!
1. In peas, tall is dominant over dwarf. If a
plant homozygous for tall is crossed
with one homozygous for dwarf:
a. What will be the appearance
(phenotype) of the F1 plants?
b. What will be the phenotypes of the F2,
and what fraction of the offspring will
have each phenotype?
c. What will be the phenotypes and
fractions if an F1 plant is crossed with
its tall parent?

d. What will be the phenotypes and

fractions if an F1 plant is crossed with
its short parent?
2. A tall plant crossed with a
dwarf one produces offspring,
of which about half are tall
and half are dwarf. What are
the genotypes of the two
parents?
3. If the tall parent in
problem #2 is self-
fertilized, what is the
probability that the first
offspring will be tall?
4. Two black female mice are crossed with
a brown male. In several litters, female #1
produced 9 black offspring and 7 browns.
Female #2 produced 57 blacks.
a.What can you determine about the
inheritance of black and brown coat color
from these data?
b.b. What are the genotypes of the parents?
5. In humans, spotted skin (S) is
dominant to non-spotted (s), and woolly
hair (W) is dominant to non-woolly (w).
List the genotypes and phenotypes of
children to be expected from a
marriage of a man whose genotype is
Ssww and a woman whose genotype is
ssWw.
True or False?

1. Self-fertilization of a pea plant

produces the same result as if that
plant were crossed with another of
identical genotype.
True or False?

2. One parent in a testcross is always

homozygous recessive for all genes
being studied; this kind of cross can
be used to determine the genotype of
an unknown individual.
True or False?

3. Mendel’s law of independent

assortment states that a gamete gets
only one allele for each gene.
True or False?

4. Recessive alleles that cause fatal

genetic disorders are very
uncommon, because an individual
that inherits one of these alleles will
die.
True or False?

5. The phenotype of a heterozygous

individual is used to determine
dominance.
ANSWERS
1.a. T=tall, t=dwarf F1: all tall (Tt)

b. F2 will be ¾ tall (TT and Tt) and

¼ dwarf (tt)
c. This cross is now Tt × TT, so
offspring are all tall but ½ TT and ½
Tt

d. This cross is Tt × tt, so offspring

are ½ tall (Tt) and ½ dwarf (tt)
2. We know that the dwarf
parent is tt. If the tall parent
were TT, all the offspring would
be tall (Tt). So, the tall parent
must be Tt, giving the cross Tt
× tt and ½ Tt and ½ tt offspring.
3. This cross is Tt × Tt, so
¾ of the offspring should be
tall. For any one offspring,
the probability of being tall
is therefore 3 in 4 or 75%.
4. a. Black must be dominant, because not one of the 57
offspring of female #2 showed the brown trait, which is
pretty unlikely if brown is dominant (even if the brown male
is heterozygous).

b. Female #2 is likely to be homozygous dominant (BB), so

that when mated to a homozygous recessive male (bb), all
the offspring are black (Bb). Female #1 is likely to be
heterozygous (Bb), so that when mated to a homozygous
recessive male (bb), about half the offspring are black (Bb)
and half are brown (bb).
5. Ssww × ssWw should give
¼ SsWw (spotted, woolly), ¼
Ssww (spotted, non-woolly), ¼
ssWw (non-spotted, woolly),
and ¼ ssww (non-spotted,
non-woolly)
True or False

1.True
2.True
3.False
4.False
5.True
Seatwork

1. In the following cases of disputed paternity, determine the

probable parent.
a. Mother is type B, child is type O. Father #1 is A; father #2
is AB.
b. Mother is type B, child is type AB. Father #1 is A; father
#2 is B.
2.A woman with type A blood has parents who are both type AB
and a husband who is a type B.
What is the probability that their first child will be a son with type
O blood?
3. In humans , the Brownian-eye (B) allele is domimant to the
blue- eye allele (b). If two heterozygous mate, what will be
the likely genotype and phenotype ratios of offspring.

4. Certain breeds of cattle show incomplete dominance in

coat color. When pure breeding red cows are bred with pure
breeding white cows, the offspring are roan ( a pinkish coat
color). Summarize the genotypes using Punnett square of the
possible offspring when roan cow is mated with roan bull.
5. A man with blood type AB marries a
woman with type B blood. Her mother has
type O blood. List the expected phenotype
and genotype frequencies of their children.
6. The mother has blood type AB blood.
The father has type B blood. His mother
has type O blood. What are the
possibilities of blood type for their children?