Inheritance

1. Define Character
Character is a distinctive inherited feature of an organism
2. Differentiate between character and trait
Character is the distinctive inherited feature of an organism. On the other hand, trait
is the different variations of a character. For example, tall and short stems are the
traits for the character height in a plant.
3. What are the character and traits in that were chosen by Mendel for his experiments?
Character
Stem Length
Flower colour
Flower position
Pod (fruit) shape
Pod colour
Seed shape
Seed colour

Tall
Purple
Axial
Inflated
Green
Round
Yellow

Traits
Short
White
Terminal
Constricted
Yellow
Wrinkled
Green

4. What is an allele?
It is one of the alternative form of a gene. In a diploid cell there are usually two
alleles occupying the same locus of a homologous chromosome.
5. What is a gene?
A gene is a hereditary unit composed of DNA. It is a basic unit of inheritance that
determines a particular characteristic in an organism.
6. Which plant did Mendel choose for his genetic experiments?
Mendel choose Pisum sativum or the pea plant for his experiment.
7. Give reasons for Mendels choice of plant.
Mendel chooses the pea plant because the species comes with a lot of variations in
its characteristics. For example, different heights, different flower colours, different

shapes of the pods and so on. Such vast variation in the characters offered him more
material for genetic research. Pea plant grow rapidly and thus, it was easier for him
to study quite a few generations in a short span of time and make his observations.
Pea plants can also be grown very easily and does not need much tending to or
special care.
8. What is a dominant trait?
A dominant trait is the one that is expressed in an organism, suppressing the
recessive trait
9. What is a recessive trait?
A recessive trait is one that stays suppressed or cannot be expressed in the presence
of the dominant trait. For example, in the pea plant, the dominant trait is tall and the
recessive trait is short or dwarf.
10.What is a dominant allele?
It is an allele that carries the dominant trait and is expressed in the phenotype of the
organism. The dominant trait (tall) is represented by T or T is the dominant allele.
11.What is recessive allele?
It is an allele that carries the recessive trait and is only expressed as the phenotype of
the organism in the absence of the dominant allele. The recessive trait (short or
dwarf) is represented by t or t is the recessive allele.
12.What is a genotype
Genotype is the genetic constituent of an organism. That is, the different alleles of
different traits present in a gene. For example, TT, Tt and tt.
13.What is phenotype
Phenotype is the observable characteristics of an organism which is determined by
the specific genotype. That is whether the plant is tall, short, with white flowers or
red ones etc.

14.What are homozygous alleles?

Alleles that form the allelic pair are the same. An individual that contains only one
allele at the allelic pair is known as homozygote. For example, TT is homozygous
dominant and tt is homozygous recessive; pure lines are homozygous for the gene of
interest.
15.What are heterozygous alleles?
Alleles that form the allelic pair are different. An individual that contains one of each
member of the gene pair is known as heterozygote. For example, Tt is heterozygous.
16.What are pure breeding plants?
Pure breeding plants are those which when self-fertilized, produce identical
offspring generation after generation.
17.What is test cross?
Test cross is a way to identify the genotypes of an individual to see whether it is
homozygous or heterozygous for a dominant character. This is done by crossing an
individual which exhibits the homozygous recessive genotype with the individual for
which the test cross is being done.
18.What is a monohybrid cross?
It is a genetic cross done between parents that differ in the alleles they possess for
one particular gene. One parent having two dominant alleles and the other having
two recessive.
19.State the importance of meiosis I in the segregation of alleles.
The segregation of anaphase I of meiosis explain Mendels observation that each
parent gives on allele for each trait at random to each offspring, regardless of
whether the allele is expressed or not. Factors or genes for different traits are
inherited independently of each other.

20.What is a dihybrid cross?

It is a genetic cross between parents that differ in two characters controlled by genes
at different loci.
21.State the importance of meiosis in terms of independent assortment of chromosomes.

22.Write a note of the ABO system of blood group determination.

23.What is Rhesus factor?
24.When are the anti-Rhesus antibodies stimulated?
25.What is a karyotype?
26.What are chromosomes?
27.What are autosomes? How many autosomes are there in a human cell?
28.What causes Downs syndrome?
29.How is sex in humans determinated?
30.What are sex-lined inheritances? And Explain sex-linked inheritance of haemophilia
31. What are hereditary diseases? And Describe thalassaemia