Inheritance of Two Genes
Enroll to start learning
You’ve not yet enrolled in this course. Please enroll for free to listen to audio lessons, classroom podcasts and take practice test.
Interactive Audio Lesson
Listen to a student-teacher conversation explaining the topic in a relatable way.
Introduction to Dihybrid Crosses
🔒 Unlock Audio Lesson
Sign up and enroll to listen to this audio lesson
Today, we’re diving into Mendel’s experiments with two traits. Does anyone know what we call these types of crosses when we study two characteristics at once?
Is it called a dihybrid cross?
Exactly! In a dihybrid cross, like when Mendel crossed yellow round seeds with green wrinkled seeds, he was able to observe how these traits varied in the offspring.
So, did he find out which traits were dominant?
Yes, he discovered that yellow seed color was dominant over green, and round seed shape dominated over wrinkled. This leads us to the idea of dominance and recessiveness, which is crucial to understand how traits are inherited.
What do you mean by dominance?
Great question! Dominance means that one trait can mask the presence of another. In our case, the yellow and round traits completely mask the green and wrinkled traits in the offspring.
Can you explain how he measured these traits in the offspring?
Sure! He used a Punnett square to predict the ratios of offspring by crossing alleles from each parent, leading to identifiable combinations.
To summarize, in his dihybrid crosses, Mendel established which traits were dominant and discovered the way traits were passed down through the generations.
Law of Independent Assortment
🔒 Unlock Audio Lesson
Sign up and enroll to listen to this audio lesson
Now, let’s dive deeper into Mendel’s findings. What do you think happened when he combined the traits of seed color and shape during his experiments?
I think he noticed different combinations of traits.
Right! The law of independent assortment states that the inheritance of one trait is independent of the inheritance of another trait. This means traits segregate independently during gamete formation.
How do we see that ratio in the offspring?
By using the Punnett square again, you can visualize how these traits combine. In Mendel's dihybrid cross, he found a phenotypic ratio of 9:3:3:1.
What does that ratio mean?
The ratio gives us insight into how many offspring will express each combination of traits: 9 will be yellow and round, 3 yellow and wrinkled, 3 green and round, and 1 green and wrinkled.
That’s really interesting! Why is this important?
The significance is huge! It confirms that traits segregate independently, which challenges previous notions of blending inheritance. This principle is fundamental in understanding genetics.
In summary, Mendel's law of independent assortment revolutionized how we perceive heredity and set the stage for modern genetics.
Application of Punnett Square
🔒 Unlock Audio Lesson
Sign up and enroll to listen to this audio lesson
Let’s apply what we've learned about dihybrid crosses using a Punnett square. Who can explain how we set it up?
We write the gametes from each parent on the top and side of the square.
Exactly! For example, if we have RRYY and rryy, the gametes would be RY and ry. Can anyone tell me what the resulting genotypes in the squares will be?
All will be RrYy, so they should be yellow and round, correct?
That's right! But if we self-pollinated F1 plants, what would happen next?
We would get the phenotypic ratio of 9:3:3:1 in the F2 generation!
Well done! Remember, that ratio is critical in understanding how traits can combine as they are passed down through generations.
Could we see different phenotypes from other combinations?
Definitely! Depending on the traits we select, different ratios can emerge, giving us valuable information about those traits.
In summary, Punnett squares are a powerful tool in genetics, allowing us to visualize how traits assort and predict ratios of traits in offspring.
Introduction & Overview
Read summaries of the section's main ideas at different levels of detail.
Quick Overview
Standard
In this section, the inheritance patterns of two genes are examined, highlighting Mendel's experiments, the establishment of dominance and recessiveness among traits, and the law of independent assortment. It covers how traits segregate independently during gamete formation, leading to diverse phenotypic ratios.
Detailed
Inheritance of Two Genes
Overview
This section examines the inheritance patterns involving two distinct genes as originally explored by Gregor Mendel through his pioneering experiments with pea plants. Mendel's investigations revealed that traits are inherited independently, leading to the laws of inheritance that underpin modern genetic principles.
Key Points
- Mendel's Experiments: By performing dihybrid crosses, Mendel investigated the inheritance of two characters simultaneously. For instance, he crossed plants with yellow round seeds with those having green wrinkled seeds to observe the resulting seed types in the offspring.
- Dominance and Recessiveness: In these crosses, specific traits were found to dominate over others. Yellow color was dominant over green and round shape was dominant over wrinkled shape. Mendel's findings emphasized that when traits are crossed, one trait may completely mask another in the phenotype.
- Law of Independent Assortment: Through analysis of the offspring, Mendel formulated the law of independent assortment, which states that the alleles for different traits segregate independently from one another during gamete formation, leading to various combinations in the offspring.
- Punnett Squares: The use of Punnett squares effectively illustrates how gametes combine to form zygotes, allowing for predictions about the genotypic and phenotypic ratios among offspring. For example, in a typical dihybrid cross, Mendel observed a 9:3:3:1 phenotypic ratio, indicating the independent segregation of traits.
Significance
Mendel's work laid the foundation for the field of genetics, demonstrating that traits are inherited according to specific rules rather than through blending. Understanding these principles has profound implications for both basic biology and the study of heredity and variation in organisms.
Youtube Videos
Audio Book
Dive deep into the subject with an immersive audiobook experience.
Mendel’s Dihybrid Cross
Chapter 1 of 4
🔒 Unlock Audio Chapter
Sign up and enroll to access the full audio experience
Chapter Content
Mendel also worked with and crossed pea plants that differed in two characters, as is seen in the cross between a pea plant that has seeds with yellow colour and round shape and one that had seeds of green colour and wrinkled shape. Mendel found that the seeds resulting from the crossing of the parents, had yellow coloured and round shaped seeds. Here can you tell which of the characters in the pairs yellow/green colour and round/wrinkled shape was dominant? Thus, yellow colour was dominant over green and round shape dominant over wrinkled.
Detailed Explanation
Mendel's experiments included crossing pea plants that demonstrated two noticeable traits: seed color and seed shape. He discovered that when a yellow round-seeded plant was crossed with a green wrinkled-seeded plant, all offspring produced had yellow round seeds. This indicated that yellow color and round shape are the dominant traits in these plants. This means that for traits to appear dominant, they mask the effects of the recessive traits when both are present.
Examples & Analogies
Think of this like a team sport. If you have one player who's very skilled (dominant trait) and another who's average (recessive trait), when they play together, the skilled player's abilities overshadow the average player's performance during matches, making it seem like the average player doesn't contribute much.
The Law of Independent Assortment
Chapter 2 of 4
🔒 Unlock Audio Chapter
Sign up and enroll to access the full audio experience
Chapter Content
In the dihybrid cross, the phenotypes round,yellow; wrinkled, yellow; round, green and wrinkled, green appeared in the ratio 9:3:3:1. Such a ratio was observed for several pairs of characters that Mendel studied. The ratio of 9:3:3:1 can be derived as a combination series of 3 yellow: 1 green, with 3 round : 1 wrinkled. This derivation can be written as follows: (3 Round : 1 Wrinkled) (3 Yellow : 1 Green) = 9 Round, Yellow : 3 Wrinkled, Yellow: 3 Round, Green : 1 Wrinkled, Green.
Detailed Explanation
This section explains Mendel's finding that certain traits can segregate independently during the formation of gametes. In simpler terms, the inheritance of one trait (like seed shape) does not affect the inheritance of another trait (like seed color). This leads to a typical phenotypic ratio of 9:3:3:1 when you cross two parent plants that are heterozygous for both traits. In essence, Mendel's experiments showed how traits from different characters can shuffle and assort during genetic inheritance.
Examples & Analogies
You can think of this like picking teams for a game. If you have a bag of six red and six blue balls, and every time someone picks a ball, they put it back into the bag. The color of the balls they pick doesn't influence the next pick. Each pick is independent, demonstrating the concept of independent assortment, just like how pea plant traits segregate independently.
Understanding through Punnett Squares
Chapter 3 of 4
🔒 Unlock Audio Chapter
Sign up and enroll to access the full audio experience
Chapter Content
The Punnett square can be effectively used to understand the independent segregation of the two pairs of genes during meiosis and the production of eggs and pollen in the F1 RrYy plant. The four types are RY, Ry, rY and ry, each with a frequency of 25 per cent or 1/4th of the total gametes produced.
Detailed Explanation
A Punnett square is a useful tool in genetics for predicting the possible genetic combinations of offspring from two parent organisms. For Mendel's dihybrid crosses, the Punnett square allows us to visualize how the gametes combine. Each combination represents a different genotype in the offspring, confirming that independent assortment leads to a variety of combinations.
Examples & Analogies
Imagine a menu in a sandwich shop where you can choose a bread type and a filling. Each selection is independent; picking whole wheat bread doesn’t affect whether you can choose turkey or ham filling. Similarly, in a Punnett square, choosing a gene for seed color doesn't restrict the choice of gene for seed shape, allowing for a variety of combinations.
Chromosomal Theory of Inheritance
Chapter 4 of 4
🔒 Unlock Audio Chapter
Sign up and enroll to access the full audio experience
Chapter Content
Mendel published his work on inheritance of characters in 1865 but for several reasons, it remained unrecognized till 1900...by which time scientists were able to carefully observe cell division. This led to the discovery of structures in the nucleus that appeared to double and divide just before each cell division. These were called chromosomes.
Detailed Explanation
After Mendel's initial discoveries on genetic inheritance were largely overlooked, the Chromosomal Theory of Inheritance emerged. This theory proposed that genes (the factors Mendel discovered) are located on chromosomes. Observations during cell division showed that chromosomes also segregated and assorted independently, aligning perfectly with Mendel's principles. This theory helped to explain how the traits and variations observed by Mendel were physically transmitted during reproduction.
Examples & Analogies
You might think of chromosomes as being similar to books on a shelf. Each book (chromosome) holds information (genes) on certain topics (traits). When you take a book off the shelf to study, you can only focus on the information contained in that one book, just as when chromosomes segregate, the traits carried on those chromosomes are separated and passed on independently.
Key Concepts
-
Dihybrid Cross: The genetic cross of two traits.
-
Dominance: A relationship where one trait masks the other.
-
Recessiveness: A situation where the trait is masked by a dominant allele.
-
Independent Assortment: The principle that alleles for different genes segregate independently.
-
Punnett Square: A tool for predicting offspring traits.
Examples & Applications
Crossing pea plants with yellow round seeds (dominant traits) and green wrinkled seeds (recessive traits) resulted in a 9:3:3:1 phenotypic ratio in the F2 generation.
Using a Punnett square, the offspring from a RRYy x rryy cross resulted in all RrYy plants, showcasing dominance in the phenotype.
Memory Aids
Interactive tools to help you remember key concepts
Rhymes
Cross two traits, oh what a sight, A 9:3:3:1 is quite right!
Stories
Imagine Mendel planting seeds in his garden, crossing plants with yellow and round seeds with ones that had green and wrinkled seeds, discovering the magic of inheritance as each trait danced beautifully together!
Memory Tools
Remember D for Dominant and R for Recessive; if it's Dominant, it’ll impress!
Acronyms
DIHYBRID - Dominance Is High Yielding By Random Independent Traits.
Flash Cards
Glossary
- Dihybrid Cross
A genetic cross that examines the inheritance of two different traits simultaneously.
- Dominant Trait
A trait that is expressed in the phenotype even when only one copy of the allele is present.
- Recessive Trait
A trait that is only expressed in the phenotype when two copies of the corresponding allele are present.
- Law of Independent Assortment
The principle stating that the segregation of alleles for one trait occurs independently of the segregation of alleles for another trait.
- Punnett Square
A diagram that predicts the outcome of a genetic cross by showing the possible combinations of alleles from the parents.
Reference links
Supplementary resources to enhance your learning experience.