(a) How do Mendel’s experiments show that traits may be dominant or recessive ?
(b) How do Mendel’s experiments show that traits are inherited independently ?
(a) Mendel first crossed pure bred tall pea plants with pure bred dwarf pea plants and found that only tall pea plants were produced in the first generation. No dwarf pea plants were obtained in F1 generation. Mendel concluded that the first generation showed the traits of only one of the parent plants; tallness. The trait of other parent plant, dwarfness, did not show up in the progeny of first generation. Mendel then crossed the tall pea plants of the first generation (F1 Generation) and found that tall plants and dwarf plants were obtained in the second generation (or F2 generation) in the ratio of 3:1. Mendel noted that the dwarf trait of the parent pea plant which had seemingly disappeared in the first generation progeny reappeared in the second generation. In this way, Mendel’s experiments with tall and dwarf pea plants showed that the traits may be dominant and recessive.
(b) When Mendel crossed pure-bred tall pea plants with pure-bred dwarf pea plants, he found that only tall pea plants were produced in the F1 generation. When Mendel further crossed the tall pea plants of the F1 generation, he found that the tall plants and dwarf plants were obtained in the ratio 3:1 in the F2 generation. Mendel noted that all the pea plants produced in the F2 generation were either tall or dwarf. There were no plants with intermediate height (or medium height) in-between the tall and dwarf plants. In this way, Mendel’s experiment showed that the traits (like tallness and dwarfness) are inherited independently. This is because if the traits of tallness and dwarfness had blended (or mixed up), then medium sized pea plants would have been produced.
(a) If a normal human cell has 46 chromosomes, how many chromosomes will be there in a human (;) sperm cell, and (ii) zygote ?
(b) What sizes of plants are produced if both parents have genes Tt ?
How are fossils formed? Describe, in brief, two methods of determining the age of fossils. [All India]
a) Name the scientist who gave the theory of origin of life on earth. What is this theory ?
(b) How are those species which are now ‘extinct’ studied ?
Will geographical isolation be a major factor in the speciation of an organism that reproduces asexually ? Why or why not ?
Define variation in relation to a species. Why is variation beneficial to the species? [Delhi]
If the trait A exists in 10% of a population of an asexually reproducing species and a trait B exists in 60% of the same population, which trait is likely to have arisen earlier ?
(a) What is the genotype of dwarf plants which always produced dwarf offspring ?
(b) What is the genotype of tall plants which always produced tall offspring ?
(c) What is the genotype of
Does genetic combination of mother play a significant role in determining the sex of a new born baby ?
Name the various tools of tracing evolutionary relationships which have been used for studying human evolution.
A woman has only daughters. Analyse the situation genetically and provide a suitable explanation.
Only variations that confer an advantage to an individual organism will survive in a population. Do you agree with this statement ? Why or why not ?
What do you understand by the double helical structure of DNA? Who proposed this structure?
How is the equal genetic contribution of male and female parents ensured in the progeny? [Delhi]
Give an example of body characteristics used to determine how close two species are in terms of evolution and explain it. [All India]
What is meant by the term speciation? List four factors which could lead to speciation. [Delhi]
State whether the following statement is true or false :
The sex of an infant is not a case of inheritance of characteristics.
The gene for red hair is recessive to the gene for black hair. What will be the hair colour of a person if he inherits a gene for red hair from his mother and a gene for black hair from his father ?
Give the contrasting traits of the following characters in pea plant and mention which is dominant and which is recessive :
(a) Yellow seed (b) Round seed
(a)What is meant by ‘heredity’ ? What are the units of heredity.
(b) State Mendel’s first law of inheritance.
(a) Why did Mendel choose pea plants for conducting his experiments on inheritance ?
(b) State Mendel’s second law of inheritance.
State one characteristic which shows that the birds are very closely related to dinosaurs.
Why are human beings who look so different from each other in terms of size, colour and looks said to belong to the same species ?
Fill in the following blanks with suitable words :Fill in the following blanks with suitable words :
(a) The human forelimb and bat’s forelimb are an example of……………………organs whereas an insect’s wing and a bat’s wing are an example of…………………organs.
(b) The evolution of eye is an example of evolution by…………………
(c) The scientific name of all human beings is……………………..
(d) Broccoli has evolved from……………..by the process of artificial selection.
(e) The theory of natural selection for evolution was proposed by………………………
Why are the small numbers of surviving tigers a cause of worry from the point of view of genetics ?
Will geographical isolation be a major factor in the speciation of an organism that reproduces asexually ? Give reason for your answer.
Out of bacteria, spider, fish and chimpanzee, which organism has a better body design in evolutionary terms ? Give reason for your answer.
(a) Define ‘speciation’. Explain how speciation occurs.
(b) Will geographical isolation be a major factor in the speciation of a self-pollinating plant species ? Give reason for your answer.
Does the occurrence of diversity of animals on earth suggest their diverse ancestry also? Discuss this point in the light of evolution.
A man with blood group A marries a woman with blood O and their daughter has blood group O. Is this information enough to tell you which of the traits blood group A or O is dominant ? Why or why not ?