Non-

Mendelian
Genetics
Inheritance Concepts
Mendel Never Imagined!
Mendelian Genetics
(Complete
Dominance)
 Only two possible Phenotypes:
either dominant or recessive
 Tallplant X Short plant = Tall
plant
(TT) (tt) (Tt)
Non-Mendelian
Genetics
But, not all inheritance is based on the rules of
Complete Dominance!!
Introduction
 Mendelian Genetics describes inheritance patterns
based on Complete Dominance or Recessiveness.
 There are other types of inheritance that Mendel
never considered:
 Incomplete Inheritance
 Codominance

 Multiple Alleles
 Polygenic Traits
 Sex-linked
Incomplete Inheritance
 The hybrid (heterozygous) offspring
displays a THIRD Phenotype!!
Neither trait is completely dominant,
as a result, there appears to be a
blending phenotype.
Red Flower X White Flower = Pink
(RR) (WW) (RW)
Incomplete Dominance
A heterozygote shows a phenotype
that is intermediate between the
two homozygous phenotype
A form of intermediate inheritance
in which one allele for a specific trait
that is not completely dominant
over the other allele.
 This
results in a third phenotype in
which the expressed physical trait is
a combination of the dominant and
recessive phenotypes.
Incomplete
Inheritance Problem
 What is the probability of pink
flowers if pink flowers are bred
with red flowers?

50%
chance
of Pink
Flowers
Incomplete Inheritance
Problem
 What is the probability of white
flowers if pink flowers are bred
with pink flowers?
Incomplete Inheritance
Problem
 What is the probability of white cat
if black cat is bred with white cat?
Incomplete Inheritance
Problem
 What is the probability of gray cat if
black cat is bred with gray cat?
Co dominance

Bothalleles are
expressed
equally in the
phenotype of the
heterozygote.
CoDominance
 Bothtraits are dominant, and show up in
the phenotype together. Co means
“together”

 Black Cow X White Cow = Roan

(BB) (WW) (BW)
CoDominance Problem
 What are all the possible
phenotypes when two
spotted cows are bred?
Possible
phenotypes
are a black
cow, 2
spotted
cows, and a
white cow
Co Dominance Problem
What are all the possible
phenotypes when two checkered
chickens are bred?
CoDominance
Problem
 What are all the possible
phenotypes when checkered
chicken is bred with black
chicken?
CoDominance Problem
 What are all the possible phenotypes
when checkered chicken is breed
with white chicken?
Blood type displays both co-
dominance and complete
dominance
 Red Blood cells can either have a carbohydrate
on their surface or not.
 The presence of a carbohydrate (I) is dominant to the
absence of a carb (i).
 Additionally, there are two types of carbs that
may exist on the surface of RBCs called A (IA) and
B (IB).
 Cellsurface carbs A and B are codominant, which
means they could also show up at the same time on
an RBC.
 Blood Type Inheritance
Rules:
1. A person with the IA allele Cells Genotypes Blood types
will have A carbohydrates.
A A Type A
2. A person with the I allele
B
I i, I I
A
blood
will have B carbohydrates.
Type B
3. A person with the
recessive i allele will have
I i, I I
B B B
blood
no carbohydrates.
Type AB
4. Or a person with both IA II
A B
blood
and IB alleles will have
both A and B
Type O
carbohydrates on their
cells.
ii blood
Blood Type Problems

If a woman with AB blood

has children with a man
who has type O, what will
be the possible genotypes
of their children? What will
be their blood types?

IA IB
i IA i IB i
i IA i IB i
Blood Type Problems

Blood Type Problem 2: A

woman with type B blood
has a child with type O
blood. How is this possible
if her husband has type A
blood?
 Multiple Alleles
 When more than 2 varieties exist in a trait. Many animals have a
variety of coat colors.
1. In
humans, there are four types of
blood; type A, type B, type AB,
and type O. The alleles A and B
are codominant to each other and
the O allele is recessive to both A
and B alleles. So a person with the
genotype IAIA or IAi will have A
type of blood.
a. What possible genotypes will
produce B type of blood?
THINK TIME
aNSWER

IBi
IBIB
1. Inhumans, there are four types of
blood; type A, type B, type AB,
and type O. The alleles A and B
are codominant to each other and
the O allele is recessive to both A
and B alleles. So a person with the
genotype IAIA or IAi will have A
type of blood.
b. What is the only genotype that
will produce O type of blood?
THINK TIME
aNSWER

ii
1. Inhumans, there are four types of
blood; type A, type B, type AB,
and type O. The alleles A and B
are codominant to each other and
the O allele is recessive to both A
and B alleles. So a person with the
genotype IAIA or IAi will have A
type of blood.
c. What is the only genotype that
will produce AB type of blood?
THINK TIME
In the 1950’s, a young woman sued film
star/director Charlie Chaplin for parental support
of her illegitimate child. Charlie Chaplin’s blood
type was already on record as type AB. The
mother of the child had type A and her son had
type O blood. a. Complete a Punnett square for the
possible cross of Charlie and the mother.
The judge ruled in favor of the mother and ordered
Charlie Chaplin to pay child support costs of the
child. Was the judge correct in his decision based
on blood typing evidence? Explain why or why not.
*refer to any Punnett squares to support your
answer.
Suppose a newborn baby was accidentally
mixed up in the hospital. In an effort to
determine the parents of the baby, the blood
types of the baby and two sets of parents were
determined. Baby 1 had type O Mrs. Brown had
type B Mr. Brown had type AB. Mrs. Smith had
type B Mr. Smith had type B
a.DrawPunnett squares for each couple (you
may need to do more than 1 square/ couple)
b.Towhich parents does baby #1 belong?
Why? Hint you may want to refer to your
Punnett squares.
Sex Chromosomes and
sex determination
A sex chromosome is a type of chromosome
involved in sex determination. Humans and
most other mammals have two sex
chromosomes, X and Y, that in combination
determine the sex of an individual. Females
have two X chromosomes in their cells,
while males have one X and one Y.
Sex Chromosomes and
sex determination
Problem
How many chromosome pairs do most human cells have?
________ .
 Our chromosomes are in pairs because we get half our
genetic makeup from our ________________ and half from our
_______________.
 Human cells that have only 23 chromosomes (not pairs), and
can join together to create a new person, are called ________
________. Sex cells from the mother are ________ and the sex
cells from the father are ________.
 Almost all chromosomes from the egg and the sperm look
alike, with an X shape. All 23 chromosomes in the egg have
an X shape. But the sperm might have either all X shaped
chromosomes or 22 X shaped and one Y shaped
chromosome. Whether that 23rd chromosome is X or Y
shaped is what determines whether the baby created from
that egg and sperm will be a ________ or a ________.
Sex Chromosomes and
sex determination
Problem
 Babies that grow from a mother’s X
chromosomes and a father’s sperm with all X
chromosomes (XX) are ________. Babies that
grow from a mother’s X chromosomes and a
father’s sperm with a Y chromosome (XY) are
________.
 Which parent’s sex cell makes the baby a boy
or a girl? ________
 Half of a father’s sperm have all X
chromosomes; half have a Y chromosome. So
why doesn’t every family have equal numbers
of sons and daughters? Some families have all
girls; some all boys; some a mix.
Sex linked traits

Sex-linked traits are characteristics

that are determined by genes located
on the sex chromosomes. Inheritance
patterns for these traits can differ for
males and females, since the X and Y
chromosomes differ. One example of a
sex-linked trait is color blindness, which
is primarily seen in males.
 Sex linked traits
Sex-linked traits are those whose genes are found on the X
chromosome but not on the Y chromosome. In humans the X
chromosomes are much larger than the Y chromosome and
contains thousands of more genes than the Y chromosome. For
each of the genes that are exclusively on the X chromosomes,
females, who are XX, would obviously have two alleles. Males,
who are XY, would have only one allele. Thus females with one
recessive allele and one dominant allele, for a gene that is unique
to the X chromosome, will always display the dominant phenotype.
 Sex linked traits
However, a male with a recessive allele for a gene unique to
the X chromosome will always exhibit that recessive trait
because there is no other corresponding allele on the Y
chromosome. In humans, each of two different sex-linked
genes has a defective recessive allele that causes a
disease. The diseases are hemophilia and colorblindness. In
hemophilia, the defective allele prevents the synthesis of a
factor needed for blood clotting. In colorblindness, the
defective allele prevents a person from seeing certain colors.
Sex linked traits Problem
Sex linked traits Problem
1. Write the genotypes for the
following phenotypes of red-green
color blindness.
a. normal male _____________
b. normal female carrying no
colorblind alleles (Homozygous)
_______
c. colorblind male ___________
d. normal female carrying the
colorblind allele (Heterozygous)
_________
e. colorblind female _______
Sex linked traits Problem
Sex linked traits Problem
Sex limited traits

Sex limited traits are

generally autosomal which
means that they are not
found on the X or Y
chromosomes,
Traits that are expressed
exclusively in one sex
 examples

barred
coloring
in
chickens
Sex – influenced traits

 This is also autosomal. It means that their genes

are not carried on the sex chromosomes
 expressed in both sexes but more frequently in
one than in other sex
Sex influenced
traits
soft facial hair in females vs
coarse facial hairs in males.
Another important example is
baldness in males, typically
expressed in presence of high
level of hormone testosterone
.
Sex influenced
traits
 Polygenic Traits
Require more than one gene (allele) to determine trait.
Skin tone is determined by 4-6 genes—that means that there may be
six different chromosomes involved!
Sex-linked Inheritance
 Genes for some traits are found on the sex
chromosomes (X or y)
 Most of these traits are recessive the normal
gene is dominant
 Heterozygous Females (XXc) are carriers.
carriers
They do not show the trait, but carry a gene
for the trait.
 Homozygous Females (XcXc) have the trait
 Males with the gene (X cY) have the trait.—
They do not have another X to
counterbalance the affected gene
 Color blindness is a sex-linked
recessive trait. The gene for
this trait is inherited through
the X chromosome.
If a woman with normal vision
has children with a man
who is colorblind, Xc Y
what are the chances
that their children will be
colorblind?
X XXc XY
Will any children be carriers
of the trait? X XXc XY
Non-Mendelian Genetics

What are the similarities and differences

between each of these forms of inheritance?
How will you remember? What are
examples of each type?
 Incomplete inheritance
 CoDominance
 Multiple Alleles
 Polygenic Traits
 Sex-linked inheritance
 STAND UP, HANDS UP,
PAIR UP
1. Teacher says, “Stand Up, Hand Up, Pair Up”
2. Students stand up and keep one hand high in the air
until they find the closest partner who’s not a teammate.
Students do a ‘high five’ and put their hands down.
3. Teacher asks a question/gives a problem and provides
think time.
4. Partners interact using: pair discussion, TIME PAIRED
SHARE
STANDS UP,
HANDS UP,
PAIR UP
 SHOWDOWN
1. Teacher selects one student on each team to be the Showdown
Captain for the first round.
2. The Showdown Captain draws the top card, reads the question, and
provides think time.
3. All students work alone to solve/respond
4. When finished, teammates signal they’re ready
5.Showdown Captain calls, “Showdown”
6. Teammates show and discuss their answers.
7.Showdown Captain leads the checking.
8.If correct, the team celebrates; if not, teammates tutor, then
celebrate.