Features of inheritance[edit]
Discrete inheritance and Mendel's laws[edit]
Main article: Mendelian inheritance
A Punnett square depicting a cross between two pea plants heterozygous for purple (B) and white (b)
blossoms.
At its most fundamental level, inheritance in organisms occurs by passing discrete heritable units,
called genes, from parents to offspring.[38] This property was first observed by Gregor Mendel, who
studied the segregation of heritable traits in pea plants.[14][39] In his experiments studying the trait for
flower color, Mendel observed that the flowers of each pea plant were either purple or white—but
never an intermediate between the two colors. These different, discrete versions of the same gene
are called alleles.
In the case of the pea, which is a diploid species, each individual plant has two copies of each gene,
one copy inherited from each parent.[40] Many species, including humans, have this pattern of
inheritance. Diploid organisms with two copies of the same allele of a given gene are
called homozygous at that gene locus, while organisms with two different alleles of a given gene are
called heterozygous.
The set of alleles for a given organism is called its genotype, while the observable traits of the
organism are called its phenotype. When organisms are heterozygous at a gene, often one allele is
called dominant as its qualities dominate the phenotype of the organism, while the other allele is
called recessive as its qualities recede and are not observed. Some alleles do not have complete
dominance and instead have incomplete dominance by expressing an intermediate phenotype,
or codominance by expressing both alleles at once.[41]
When a pair of organisms reproduce sexually, their offspring randomly inherit one of the two alleles
from each parent. These observations of discrete inheritance and the segregation of alleles are
collectively known as Mendel's first law or the Law of Segregation.
Notation and diagrams[edit]
Genetic pedigree charts help track the inheritance patterns of traits.
Geneticists use diagrams and symbols to describe inheritance. A gene is represented by one or a
few letters. Often a "+" symbol is used to mark the usual, non-mutant allele for a gene.[42]
In fertilization and breeding experiments (and especially when discussing Mendel's laws) the parents
are referred to as the "P" generation and the offspring as the "F1" (first filial) generation. When the
F1 offspring mate with each other, the offspring are called the "F2" (second filial) generation. One of
the common diagrams used to predict the result of cross-breeding is the Punnett square.
When studying human genetic diseases, geneticists often use pedigree charts to represent the
inheritance of traits.[43] These charts map the inheritance of a trait in a family tree.
Multiple gene interactions[edit]
Human height is a trait with complex genetic causes. Francis Galton's data from 1889 shows the relationship
between offspring height as a function of mean parent height.
Organisms have thousands of genes, and in sexually reproducing organisms these genes generally
assort independently of each other. This means that the inheritance of an allele for yellow or green
pea color is unrelated to the inheritance of alleles for white or purple flowers. This phenomenon,
known as "Mendel's second law" or the "law of independent assortment," means that the alleles of
different genes get shuffled between parents to form offspring with many different combinations.
(Some genes do not assort independently, demonstrating genetic linkage, a topic discussed later in
this article.)
Often different genes can interact in a way that influences the same trait. In the Blue-eyed
Mary (Omphalodes verna), for example, there exists a gene with alleles that determine the color of
flowers: blue or magenta. Another gene, however, controls whether the flowers have color at all or
are white. When a plant has two copies of this white allele, its flowers are white—regardless of
whether the first gene has blue or magenta alleles. This interaction between genes is
called epistasis, with the second gene epistatic to the first.[44]
Many traits are not discrete features (e.g. purple or white flowers) but are instead continuous
features (e.g. human height and skin color). These complex traits are products of many genes.[45] The
influence of these genes is mediated, to varying degrees, by the environment an organism has
experienced. The degree to which an organism's genes contribute to a complex trait is
called heritability.[46] Measurement of the heritability of a trait is relative—in a more variable
environment, the environment has a bigger influence on the total variation of the trait. For example,
human height is a trait with complex causes. It has a heritability of 89% in the United States. In
Nigeria, however, where people experience a more variable access to good nutrition and health
care, height has a heritability of only 62%.[47]
