Transmission Genetics Flashcards
What were the 3 theories of inheritance?
- Pangenesis: skills and traits of parents are transferred to the gonads and then passed onto offspring
- Homunculus: sperm contains all genetic material from the man and it implants in woman who incubates only
- Mendelian Inheritance: organisms have two copies of a particle that controls phenotype and is inherited
What is the 1st Law of Mendelian Inheritance:
- Law of segregation
- The two alleles (and chromosomes) segregate from each other into gametes
- Each gamete has 1/2 chance of inheriting each allele
- Gametes combine randomly to form the next generation
What is a test cross?
Crossing an organism with a homozygous recessive to determine its genotype
What is the F2 ratio for autosomal recessive inheritance of 1 trait?
Genotype:
1 homozgous dominant: 2 heterozgyotes: 1 homozygous recessive
Phenotype:
3 dominant: 1 recessive
What is Mendel’s 2nd Law?
- Law of Independent assortment
- Each pair of alleles (and chromosomes) segregates independently of all other alleles during gamete formation
Describe the general pattern of a autosomal recessive dihybrid cross:
P: Homo dom x homo rec
F1: Double heterozygote
F2: 9:3:3:1
What are the distinguishing features of autosomal recessive inheritance in human pedigrees?
- Affects males and females equally
- The trait can ‘skip’ generations
- Two unaffected parents can have an affected child
e. g. CF, albinism, Tay-Sachs
What are the distinguishing features of autosomal dominant inheritance in human pedigrees?
- Affects males and females equally
- Transmission from both sexes to both sexes
- All affected children must have an affected parent
- The trait does not skip generations
e. g. Achondroplasia, Huntington disease
What is a reciprocal cross?
- Tests the role of parental sex on inheritance patterns
- Female of strain 1 is crossed with male of strain 2 and then female of strain 2 is crossed with male of strain 1
What are the distinguishing features of X-linked recessive inheritance in human pedigrees?
- Males usually affected
- The presence of female carriers
- No male to male transmission
e. g. Haemophilia, RG colour blindness
What are the distinguishing features of X-linked dominant inheritance in human pedigrees?
- Both sexes affected byt often an excess of females
- Females usually less severely affected (X-inactivation)
- No male to male transmission
E.g. Rett syndrome, incontinetia pigmenti
What is Mendel’s chromosome theory? How is it supported?
- The theory is that genes are on chromosomes
Supported by: - Behaviour of chromosomes at meiosis- parallels Mendel’s laws (segregations and independent assortment)
- Inheritance of certain traits follow the inheritance of particular chromosomes e.g. X-linked genes
What are the single gene extensions to Mendelian Inheritance?
- Other types of dominance (incomplete and codominance)
- Multiple alleles (3 or more)
- Lethal alleles
- Penetrance and expressivity
- Effect of environment
- Sex influenced and sex limited traits
What are the 3 types of dominance?
- Complete: the heterozygote shows the phenotype of the dominant phenotype
- Incomplete: the heterozygote shows a phenotype that is a blend of the two homozygotes e.g. white x purple = pink
- Codominance: both alternative traits are expressed in the heterozgyote- neither phenotype is dominant e.g. AB blood groups
Do variations in dominance negate Mendel’s laws of segregation?
- No, they reflect differences in the way gene products control the production of phenotypes
What are lethal alleles?
- These alleles have the potential to cause the death of an organism if the organism is homozgyous recessive for the mutation
e.g. Yellow coat colour in mice:
Ay = yellow
A = agouti
Cross:
Ay A (yellow) x Ay A (yellow)
Offspring ratio:
2 Yellow (Ay A): 1 agouti (A A) - Explanation the Ay allele is dominant for coat colour but recessive for lethality (pleiotropic gene)
- Offspring were 1 Ay Ay (dead): 2 Ay A (yellow) and 1 A A (agouti)
What is penetrance?
- The proportion of individuals with the genotype that exhibit the expected genotype
- Measured at the population level (within an individual it is just penetrant or not)
E.g. dominant disorder retinoblastoma shows 80% penetrance. 80% of people with disease mutation will develop tumours.