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Patterns of Inheritance
  • Chapter 12
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Early Ideas of Heredity
  • Before the 20th century, 2 concepts were the basis for ideas about heredity:
  • -heredity occurs within species
  • -traits are transmitted directly from parent to offspring
  • This led to the belief that inheritance is a matter of blending traits from the parents.


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Early Ideas of Heredity
  • Botanists in the 18th and 19th centuries produced hybrid plants.
  • When the hybrids were crossed with each other, some of the offspring resembled the original strains, rather than the hybrid strains.
  • This evidence contradicted the idea that traits are directly passed from parent to offspring.
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Early Ideas of Heredity
  • Gregor Mendel
  • -chose to study pea plants because:
  • 1. other research showed that pea hybrids could be produced
  • 2. many pea varieties were available
  • 3. peas are small plants and easy to grow
  • 4. peas can self-fertilize or be cross-fertilized
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Early Ideas of Heredity
  • Mendel’s experimental method:
  • 1. produce true-breeding strains for each trait he was studying
  • 2. cross-fertilize true-breeding strains having alternate forms of a trait
  • -perform reciprocal crosses as well
  • 3. allow the hybrid offspring to self-fertilize and count the number of offspring showing each form of the trait
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Monohybrid Crosses
  • Monohybrid cross: a cross to study only 2 variations of a single trait


  • Mendel produced true-breeding pea strains for 7 different traits
  • -each trait had 2 alternate forms (variations)
  • -Mendel cross-fertilized the 2 true-breeding strains for each trait
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Monohybrid Crosses
  • F1 generation (1st filial generation): offspring produced by crossing 2 true-breeding strains
  • For every trait Mendel studied, all F1 plants resembled only 1 parent
  • -no plants with characteristics intermediate between the 2 parents were produced
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Monohybrid Crosses
  • F1 generation: offspring resulting from a cross of true-breeding parents
  • F2 generation: offspring resulting from the self-fertilization of F1 plants


  • dominant: the form of each trait expressed in the F1 plants
  • recessive: the form of the trait not seen in the F1 plants
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Monohybrid Crosses
  • F2 plants exhibited both forms of the trait in a very specific pattern:
  • ¾ plants with the dominant form
  • ¼ plant with the recessive form
  • The dominant to recessive ratio was 3 : 1.
  • Mendel discovered the ratio is actually:
  • 1 true-breeding dominant plant
  • 2 not-true-breeding dominant plants
  • 1 true-breeding recessive plant
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Monohybrid Crosses
  • gene: information for a trait passed from parent to offspring
  • alleles: alternate forms of a gene


  • homozygous: having 2 of the same allele
  • heterozygous: having 2 different alleles



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Monohybrid Crosses
  • genotype: total set of alleles of an individual
  • PP = homozygous dominant
  • Pp = heterozygous
  • pp = homozygous recessive


  • phenotype: outward appearance of an individual
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Monohybrid Crosses
  • Principle of Segregation


  • Two alleles for a gene segregate during gamete formation and are rejoined at random, one from each parent, during fertilization.
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Monohybrid Crosses
  • Some human traits are controlled by a single gene.
  • -some of these exhibit dominant inheritance
  • -some of these exhibit recessive inheritance


  • Pedigree analysis is used to track inheritance patterns in families.
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Dihybrid Crosses
  • Dihybrid cross: examination of 2 separate traits in a single cross
  • -for example: RR YY  x  rryy


  • The F1 generation of a dihybrid cross (RrYy) shows only the dominant phenotypes for each trait.
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Dihybrid Crosses
  • The F2 generation is produced by crossing members of the F1 generation with each other or allowing self-fertilization of the F1.
  • -for example  RrYy  x  RrYy


  • The F2 generation shows all four possible phenotypes in a set ratio:
  • 9 : 3 : 3 : 1
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Dihybrid Crosses
  • Principle of Independent Assortment


  • In a dihybrid cross, the alleles of each gene assort independently.
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Probability – Predicting Results
  • Rule of addition: the probability of 2 mutually exclusive events occurring simultaneously is the sum of their individual probabilities.
  • When crossing Pp x Pp, the probability of producing Pp offspring is
  • probability of obtaining Pp (1/4), PLUS
  • probability of obtaining pP (1/4)
  • ¼  +  ¼  =  ½
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Probability – Predicting Results
  • Rule of multiplication: the probability of 2 independent events occurring simultaneously is the PRODUCT of their individual probabilities.
  • When crossing Rr Yy  x  RrYy, the probability of obtaining rr yy offspring is:
  • probability of obtaiing rr  = ¼
  • probability of obtaining yy = ¼
  • probability of rr yy = ¼  x  ¼  =  1/16
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Testcross
  • Testcross: a cross used to determine the genotype of an individual with dominant phenotype
  • -cross the individual with unknown genotype (e.g. P_) with a homozygous recessive (pp)
  • -the phenotypic ratios among offspring are different, depending on the genotype of the unknown parent
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Extensions to Mendel
  • Mendel’s model of inheritance assumes that:
  • -each trait is controlled by a single gene
  • -each gene has only 2 alleles
  • -there is a clear dominant-recessive relationship between the alleles


  • Most genes do not meet these criteria.
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Extensions to Mendel
  • Polygenic inheritance occurs when multiple genes are involved in controlling the phenotype of a trait.
  • The phenotype is an accumulation of contributions by multiple genes.
  • These traits show continuous variation and are referred to as quantitative traits.
  • For example – human height
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Extensions to Mendel
  • Pleiotropy refers to an allele which has more than one effect on the phenotype.


  • This can be seen in human diseases such as cystic fibrosis or sickle cell anemia.
  • In these diseases, multiple symptoms can be traced back to one defective allele.
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Extensions to Mendel
  • Incomplete dominance: the heterozygote is intermediate in phenotype between the 2 homozygotes.


  • Codominance: the heterozygote shows some aspect of the phenotypes of both homozygotes.
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Extensions to Mendel
  • The human ABO blood group system demonstrates:
  • -multiple alleles: there are 3 alleles of the I gene (IA, IB, and i)
  • -codominance: IA and IB are dominant to i but codominant to each other



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Extensions to Mendel
  • The expression of some genes can be influenced by the environment.


  • for example: coat color in Himalayan rabbits and Siamese cats
  • -an allele produces an enzyme that allows pigment production only at temperatures below 30oC
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Extensions to Mendel
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Extensions to Mendel
  • The products of some genes interact with each other and influence the phenotype of the individual.


  • Epistasis: one gene can interfere with the expression of another gene
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