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Chapter 12

Mendelian Genetics

Punnett Squares
Punnett Squares
Overview A Punnett square displays the possible genotypes offspring can inherit from two parental genotypes. If a trait’s inheritance pattern ...
Monohybrid Crosses
Monohybrid Crosses
Overview In the 1850s and 1860s, Gregor Mendel investigated inheritance by performing monohybrid crosses in pea plants. He crossed two plants that were ...
Dihybrid Crosses
Dihybrid Crosses
Overview To determine whether traits are inherited together or separately, Gregor Mendel crossed pea plants that differed in two traits. These parental ...
Trihybrid Crosses
Trihybrid Crosses
Trihybrid Crosses Some of Mendel’s crosses examined three pairs of contrasting characteristics. Such a cross is called a trihybrid cross. A ...
Law of Independent Assortment
Law of Independent Assortment
While Mendel’s Law of Segregation states that the two alleles for one gene are separated into different gametes, a different question of how ...
Chi-square Analysis
Chi-square Analysis
The chi-square test is a statistical hypothesis test. It is used to check whether there is a significant difference between an expected value and an ...
Pedigree Analysis
Pedigree Analysis
Overview A pedigree is a diagram displaying a family’s history of a trait. Analyzing pedigrees can reveal (1) whether a trait is dominant or ...
Multiple Allele Traits
Multiple Allele Traits
The Concept of Multiple Allelism Multiple allelism describes genes that exist in three or more allelic forms. Although diploid organisms, like humans, ...
Incomplete Dominance
Incomplete Dominance
Gregor Mendel's work (1822 - 1884) was primarily focused on pea plants. Through his initial experiments, he determined that every gene in a diploid ...
Lethal Alleles
Lethal Alleles
Agouti: A Lethal Allele Lucien Cuénot discovered lethal alleles in 1905 while studying the inheritance of coat color in mice. The agouti gene is ...
Polygenic Traits
Polygenic Traits
When more than one gene is responsible for a given phenotype, the trait is considered polygenic. Human height is a polygenic trait. Studies have uncovered ...
Background and Environment Affect Phenotype
Background and Environment Affect Phenotype
Although the genetic makeup of an organism plays a major role in determining the phenotype, there are also several environmental factors, such as ...
X and Y Chromosomes
X and Y Chromosomes
Among mammals, the gender of an organism is determined by the sex chromosomes. Humans have two sex chromosomes, X and Y. Every human diploid cell has 22 ...
The Y Chromosome Determines Maleness
The Y Chromosome Determines Maleness
The Y chromosome is a sex chromosome found in several vertebrates and mammals, including humans. In addition to 22 pairs of autosomes, the human ...
The Ratio of X Chromosome to Autosomes
The Ratio of X Chromosome to Autosomes
In most organisms, sex is determined by the ratio of X and Y chromosomes. However, in some organisms, such as Drosophila and C.elegans, sex is determined ...
X-linked Traits
X-linked Traits
In most mammalian species, females have two X sex chromosomes and males have an X and Y. As a result, mutations on the X chromosome in females may be ...
Sex Linked Disorders
Sex Linked Disorders
Like autosomes, sex chromosomes contain a variety of genes necessary for normal body function. When a mutation in one of these genes results in biological ...
Dosage Compensation
Dosage Compensation
In animals, gender is determined by the number and type of sex chromosome. For example, human females have two X chromosomes, and males have one X and one ...
X-inactivation
X-inactivation
The human X chromosome contains over ten times the number of genes as in the Y chromosome. Since males have only one X chromosome, and females have two, ...
Blood Types
Blood Types
Human blood is classified into different types based on the presence of antigens on the red blood cell's surface and antibodies in the plasma. Proper ...
Blood Transfusion and Agglutination
Blood Transfusion and Agglutination
Blood transfusion is a therapeutic measure to restore the blood volume after extensive blood loss due to an accident or a medical procedure. Blood ...
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