Review the key concepts, formulae, and examples before starting your quiz.
🔑Concepts
Genetics is the study of heredity and variation. Heredity involves the transmission of characters from parents to offspring via .
A Gene is the basic unit of heredity located at a specific locus on a .
Alleles are alternative forms of a gene (e.g., for tallness and for dwarfness). A dominant allele masks the expression of a recessive allele in a heterozygous state.
Homozygous refers to having identical alleles ( or ), while Heterozygous refers to having different alleles ().
Phenotype is the observable physical characteristic (e.g., tall), while Genotype is the genetic makeup (e.g., ).
Mendel's Law of Dominance: In a cross between a pair of contrasting characters, only one (dominant) is expressed in the generation.
Mendel's Law of Segregation: During gamete formation, the two alleles of a pair separate so that each gamete receives only one allele.
Mendel's Law of Independent Assortment: Distribution of alleles of one character into gametes is independent of the distribution of alleles of another character.
Sex Determination in humans: Males have sex chromosomes (heterogametic) and females have sex chromosomes (homogametic). The sex of a child is determined by the sperm: or .
Mutation is a sudden change in the sequence of or the structure/number of chromosomes.
📐Formulae
💡Examples
Problem 1:
A pure tall pea plant () is crossed with a pure dwarf pea plant (). Find the phenotypic and genotypic ratios of the generation.
Solution:
- Generation: All (Tall).
- Generation (Selfing ):
- Genotypes: (Pure Tall), (Hybrid Tall), (Pure Dwarf).
- Phenotypes: Tall, Dwarf.
- Phenotypic Ratio: .
- Genotypic Ratio: .
Explanation:
According to the Law of Segregation, the alleles and separate during gamete formation and combine randomly during fertilization to produce the genotypic distribution.
Problem 2:
Determine the probability of a couple having a girl child using a genetic cross.
Solution:
- Mother's Gametes: and .
- Father's Gametes: and .
- Punnett Square:
- (Female)
- (Male)
- (Female)
- (Male)
- Probability = .
Explanation:
Sex in humans is determined by the sex chromosome carried by the sperm. Since of sperms carry the chromosome and carry the chromosome, there is an equal chance for a male or female child.