Heredity and Evolution
Heredity :
The transmission of characters (or traits) from the parents to
their offsprings is called heredity.
The hereditary information is present in the sex cells (or
gametes) of the parents. Thus, gametes constitute the link
between one generation and the next, and pass on the paternal
(father’s) and maternal (mother’s) characters or traits to the
offspring.
Variations :
The differences in the characters (or traits) among the
individuals of a species is called variation.
Variations in traits among individuals in a species arise from
genetic mutations and environmental factors, such as diet,
chemicals, and pollution.
For example, human height is a trait which shows variation.
This is because some people are very tall, some are less tall,
some have medium height, some have short height whereas
others are very short.
Example of variations in human beings which involves our ears.
The lowest part of our ear is called earlobe. In most of the
people, the earlobe is ‘hanging’ and it is called free earlobe . In
some people, however, the earlobe is closely attached to the
side of the head and it is called attached earlobe . Thus, most
people have free earlobes whereas some people have attached
earlobes. So, the free earlobes and attached earlobes are the
two variations found in human population.
Due to these variations that no two human beings look alike
(except identical twins). From this discussion we conclude that
the number of successful variations is maximised by the
process of sexual reproduction. The variation is a necessity for
organic evolution .
Accumulation of Variations :
The reproduction of organisms produces variations.
The variations produced in organisms during successive
generations get accumulated in the organisms. The significance
of a variation shows up only if it continues to be inherited by
the offspring for several generations.
The great advantage of variation to a species is that it increases
the chances of its survival in a changing environment.
EX: Suppose a bacterium produces two bacteria by asexual
reproduction. Again suppose that one of the offspring bacterium
has a variation due to which it can tolerate a little higher
temperature (or little more heat) than the other one. Now, this
variation of little more heat resistance will go on accumulating
in the offsprings of successive generations of this bacterium.
And this will ultimately give rise to a variant of bacteria which
will be highly heat resistant and able to survive even at very
high temperatures.
Chromosome
Chromosome is a thread-like structure in the nucleus of a cell
formed of DNA which carries the genes.
Different organisms have different number of chromosomes in
their nuclei.
GENE :A gene is a unit of DNA on a chromosome which governs
the synthesis of one protein that controls a specific
characteristic (or trait) of an organism .
There are thousands of genes on a chromosome which control
various characteristics of an organism.
Genes are actually units of heredity which transfer
characteristics (or traits) from parents to their offsprings during
reproduction.
Genes work in pairs.
For example, the gene for tallness is represented by the letter T
whereas the gene for dwarfness is represented by the letter t.
The letters T and t actually represent two forms of the same
gene (which controls the length of an organism, say the length
of stem of a plant).
Please note that genes had not been discovered at the time
when Mendel conducted his experiments on pea plants to study
the inheritance of characteristics.
The term ‘factors’ which were used by Mendel as carriers of
heredity information are now known as ‘genes’.
Genes for controlling the same characteristic of an organism can
be of two types : dominant or recessive.
The gene which decides the appearance of an organism even in
the presence of an alternative gene is known as a dominant
gene.
The gene which can decide the appearance of an organism only
in the presence of another identical gene is called a recessive
gene.
A single recessive gene cannot decide the appearance of an
organism. The dominant gene is represented by a capital letter
and the corresponding recessive gene is represented by the
corresponding small letter.
genotype is the description of genes present in an organism.
Genotype is always a pair of letters such as TT, Tt or tt (where T
and t are the different forms of the same gene).
Thus, the genotype of a tall plant could be TT or Tt whereas that
of a dwarf plant is tt.
The characteristic (or trait) which is visible in an organism is
called its phenotype.
For example, being ‘tall’ or ‘dwarf’ (short) are phenotypes of a
plant because these traits can be seen by us or they are visible
to us.
The phenotype of an organism is actually its physical
characteristic which is determined by its genotype. For example,
genotype TT or Tt results in a tall phenotype and the genotype tt
results in a dwarf phenotype .
When two parents cross (or breed) to produce progeny (or
offsprings), then their progeny is called first filial generation or
F1 generation (where F stands for Filial which denotes progeny
of a cross).
When the first generation progeny cross (or breed) among
themselves to produce second generation progeny, then this
progeny is called second filial generation or F2 generation.
