BASIC GENETICS
Course Code:
Course Credit:
BOT 1201
3 CU
Brief course description
This course will cover Mendel’s law of inheritance, deviation from the expected patterns
Mendelian inheritance, the concept of linkage and gene mapping, concept of
multiple allelic inheritance, the roles of environmental and genetic factors in sex
determination, causes and consequences of mutation.
Specific learning outcomes:
At the end of the course, students should be able to:
1. compare and contrast Pre-Mendelian and Mendelian theories of inheritance
2. apply Mendel’s first and second laws of inheritance to solve related genetic
problems
3. explain the causes of deviations from expected patterns of Mendelian
Inheritance,
4. describe the concept of multiple allelic inheritance,
5. discuss the concept of linkage and gene mapping based on recombination
frequencies between genes
6. discuss the role of environmental and genetic factors in sex determination
7. discuss the different types, causes and consequences of the different types of
mutations.
Detailed course description:
Pre-Mendelian genetics (1 Hour)
Pre-Mendelian theories of inheritance
Strengths and weaknesses of the different theories
Introduction to Mendelian genetics (3 Hours)
Brief biography of Gregor Mendel, Survey of characteristics of a good genetic
organism, Advantages of garden peas over other species as genetic organisms,
Reasons for Mendel’s success in breeding genetics, Outline of Mendel’s classic
experiments and his results, Mendel’s monohybrid crosses and formulation of his first
law of inheritance, Reciprocal and test crosses,
Modifications of Mendelian monohybrid genotypic and phenotypic ratios (2 Hours)
Incomplete dominance, Co-dominance, Lethal genes, multiple alleles, Cytoplasmic
inheritance, Pleiotropy
Patterns of Dihybrid inheritance (3 Hours)
Definition of dihybrid inheritance, Description of Mendel’s dihybrid crosses,
Introduction to probability concepts as they relate to predicting outcomes of
dihybrid crosses, The Punnett square method, The concept of independent
assortment. Mendel’s second law of Inheritance, The dihybrid test cross
Modifications of Mendelian dihybrid genotypic and phenotypic ratios (3 Hours)
Incomplete dominance, Co-dominance, Lethal genes, Epistasis, Reciprocal gene
interaction
Multiple Allelic inheritance (3 Hours)
Coat color inheritance in rabbits, ABO blood groups in man, Practical applications
of blood group typing, Rhesus factor inheritance and its implications, ABO blood
group system and disease susceptibility, Inheritance of self incompatibility alleles in
plants
Gene linkage (2 Hours)
Concept of linkage, Types of linkage, Crossing over: detection, advantages and
disadvantages
Gene mapping (3 Hours)
Recombination frequencies / cross over values, Triangulation method of determining
gene order, Factors affecting recombination frequencies between genes,
Sex determination in plants and animals (3 Hours)
Environmental sex determination, disadvantages of environmental sex
determination, Genetic sex determination, abnormalities of sex determination and
their symptoms, Chromosomal non-disjunction
Inheritance related to sex (3 Hours)
Sex influenced characteristics, Sex limited characteristics, holandric characteristics,
Sex linked characteristics, Pedigree analysis,
Mutations (4 Hours)
Definition and classification of mutations, Causes of mutations, Types of mutagens,
Gene mutations, Frameshift and non-frameshift mutations, Chromosome mutations,
aneuploidy and euploidy
Practical (30 Hours)
Mode of delivery:
The course will consist of lectures, practicals and tutorials
Assessment method:
This will be done through examinations (60%) and coursework (practicals, tests and
assignments) (40%)
READING LIST
1. BURNS, G.W. (1980). The Science of Genetics: an introduction to Heredity. Macmillan
Publishing Company Inc. New York, 4th edition.
2. FANSWORTH, M.W. (1978). Genetics. Harper international edition. Harper and Row
Publishers Inc.
3. GREEN, N.P.O, STOUT, G.W and TAYLOR, D.J. (1998). Biological Science Vol. I & II.
Cambridge University Press, United Kingdom.
4. HARTL, D.L and JONES, E.W. (2001). Genetics: analysis of genes and genomes. Jones
and Bartlett Publishers, United States, 5th edition.
5. MUSCHEL, L. H. (1966). Blood Groups, Disease, and Selection. Bacteriological Reviews,
30: 427-441.
6. NEWMAN, S.A. (2005). The pre-Mendelian, pre-Darwinian world: Shifting relations
between genetic and epigenetic mechanisms in early multi-cellular evolution;
Journal of Biosciences 30: 75–85
7. STRICKBERGER, M.W. (1968). Genetics. The Macmillan Company, New York.