What Is This Module About?

In ancient times, our ancestors had a first-hand knowledge of nature. In those days,
everyone was a biologist and the world was a classroom itself! In their earliest thoughts, it is said
that people made no distinction between living and nonliving things. Everything was supposed to
be alive, a fit subject of “biological research.” This included trees, animals and the very stones
themselves!
In the course of their studies, our ancestors must have noticed an obvious fact: Some things
tended to reproduce themselves. People did it, mammoths did it and to the primitive mind, it may
well have seemed that even rocks could “give birth” to little pebbles!
Enlightenment came only when people domesticated animals and saw their reproductive
cycle up close. In this module, you will study how genetics, the study of inheritance, really
works. It will tell you all about the development of this branch of science and how this study helps
us know how different traits and characteristics are passed on from one generation to the next.
This module is made up of two lessons:
Lesson 1 — How Genetics Came to Be
Lesson 2 — How Come We Are What We Are?

What Will You Learn From This Module?

After studying this module, you should be able to:

♦ define what genetics, traits and characteristics are;
♦ explain Mendel’s study on genetics;
♦ explain the law of independent assortment;
♦ differentiate a phenotype from a genotype;
♦ explain how genes and chromosomes are linked;
♦ explain what cell division is and what role chromosomes play in it;
♦ explain what gene swapping or crossing over means; and
♦ define what sex chromosomes are and explain how sex-linked genes are passed along.

1
 Let’s See What You Already Know

Before you start studying this module, take this simple test first to find out how much you
already know about the topics in this module.
Encircle the letter of the correct answer to each of the following.
1. What is the study of inheritance called?
a. genetics
b. gene replication
c. gene swapping
d. genes
2. Which of the following is not true according to the results of Mendel’s experiments?
a. Hereditary traits are governed by genes which retain their identities in hybrids.
b. One form of a gene may be dominant over another but recessive genes will pop
up later.
c. Each adult organism has two copies of each gene—one from each parent.
d. Living organisms can arise spontaneously from nonliving matter.
3. What principle states that living organisms can arise spontaneously from nonliving
matter?
a. principle of complementarity
b. principle of independent assortment
c. principle of spontaneous generation
d. principle of heredity
4. What determines how an organism will look like?
a. genotype
b. allele
c. phenotype
d. sport
5. What determines what genes an organism will have?
a. genotype
b. allele
c. phenotype
d. sport

2
 6. What is that something which determines the characteristics of an offspring?
a. allele
b. gene
c. sport
d. trait
7. What is the process wherein a cell divides forming gametes called?
a. mitosis
b. meiosis
c. gene swapping
d. crossing over
8. What is another name for “gene swapping”?
a. mitosis
b. meiosis
c. crossing over
d. gene replication
9. What is a cell with a single set of chromosomes called?
a. haploid
b. diploid
c. polyploid
d. sport
10. What is a cell with two sets of chromosomes called?
a. haploid
b. diploid
c. polyploid
d. sport
Well, how was it? Do you think you fared well? Compare your answers with those in the
Answer Key on page 36 to find out.
If all your answers are correct, very good! This shows that you already know much about
the topics in this module. You may still study the module to review what you already know. Who
knows, you might learn a few more new things as well.
If you got a low score, don’t feel bad. This means that this module is for you. It will help you
understand some important concepts that you can apply in your daily life. If you study this module
carefully, you will learn the answers to all the items in the test and a lot more! Are you ready?
You may go now to the next page to begin Lesson 1.

3
 LESSON 1

How Genetics Came to Be

In the Middle Ages, theories of heredity gave way to mere lists of “monstrous births.” One
medieval idea especially stood out, that of spontaneous generation. Originating from the
Greeks, this was the belief that living organisms could arise spontaneously from nonliving matter.
Maggots were believed to have come from decaying matter, horsehair turned into worms
and frogs, mice and bugs were nothing but slime come to life. It wasn’t hard to imagine why
spontaneous generation seemed possible, because in a world where slime was common, one saw
it happen every day.
However, in the seventeenth century, a simple
experiment by an Italian scientist, Francesco Redi,
successfully challenged spontaneous generation. Redi placed
pieces of fresh meat in jars. Some of the jars he capped
tightly with cheesecloth while leaving the rest open to flies.
After some time, Redi found maggots only in the open
jars. The maggots grew, stiffened into cocoons and finally
emerged as fully-grown flies. Thus, Redi had shown that
maggots come from flies and flies come from maggots.
Nothing visible had been spontaneously generated from the
rotting meat!
Francesco Redi
Another scientist by the name of Anton Van
Leeuwenhook (the first to use a microscope) followed
Redi’s footsteps. He discovered that fleas like fish, dogs
and humans were sexual beings. He was also the first to see
bacteria, the ultra-small organisms which have become so
important in modern genetics research. Finally, he
discovered the existence of sperm cells. But he had the
wrong idea about these. Leeuwenhook believed each
sperm cell contained a complete new organism in miniature.
The problem with this was if this preformed organism was a
boy, it must already have tiny testicles which would contain
miniature sperm which would have even tinier preformed
organisms and so on and so forth. Anton Van Leeuwenhook
While Leeuwenhook looked into the sperm cells, other scientists were already looking into
the female role in reproduction.
William Harvey studied the development of the chick embryo and convinced himself that all
animals must come from eggs. Unfortunately, he couldn’t find any mammal eggs and so his theory
wasn’t successful.

4
 The only remaining riddle was answered when Oscar Hertwig observed that fertilization
was the union of a single sperm with an egg.
By 1700, the sexual nature of plants had been largely resolved by Camerarius. He showed
that flowers bore sex organs quite like those of animals and that fertilization occurred in plants as
well.
So by the early 1800s, both plants and animals were known to be sexual beings. The males
contributed pollen (sperm), the females, eggs.
The farmers and stockbreeders played a big role in the development of genetics as well. For
them, the early nineteenth century was also a time of great progress when practical questions of
farming and stockbreeding would lead, more or less, to the discovery of the gene.

Let’s see what they already knew from experience:

1. Some stable varieties nearly always breed true, their offspring having the same
characteristics as their parents. On the other hand, some breeding groups show great
variation.
2. It is sometimes possible to mate parents from two different varieties to form hybrids.
But hybrids are difficult to predict. They may seem exactly like one parent or they may
combine features of both—and when a hybrid breeds with another hybrid, the result is
even more surprising.
3. All varieties, even stable ones, occasionally produce sports, offspring different from
either parent. But sometimes the sport differs only slightly.
However, despite a lot of work, no truly general laws of inheritance were discovered.

5
 Let’s Review

Identify the scientists being described by the following. Write their names in the blanks
before the numbers.
_______________ 1. The scientist who discovered that maggots came from flies and
that flies came from maggots
_______________ 2. The scientist who discovered the existence of sperm cells
_______________ 3. The scientist who studied the development of the chick embryo
_______________ 4. The scientist who discovered fertilization
_______________ 5. The scientist who discovered the sexual nature of plants

Compare your answers with those in the Answer Key on page 36. How well did you do?

Let’s Learn

Gregor Mendel was an Augustinian monk from Brunn, Austria. In

his spare time, he bred pea plants in the monastery gardens. He studied
his pea plants carefully too by using them in his experiments particularly
in the field of genetics.
He had a number of stable varieties which he can use to form
hybrids. He had tall and short pea plants. He also had pea plants that
bore smooth and wrinkled seeds. There were also some with plump
pods and others with pinched pods. There were green and yellow peas.
There were peas with grey seed coats and those with white seed coats.
Some had white flowers, others had purple. But every pea flower had
Gregor Mendel both male and female organs making them capable of self-fertilization.
Mendel made hybrids by:
1. First, he cut off the anthers while still immature to prevent “selfing” or self-fertilization.
2. Then he dusted the stigma with pollen taken from the desired “father.”
3. Finally, he tied bags over the flowers to keep out any stray pollen. This way, he was
able to control the parentage of each generation.

6
 Mendel’s first major result was the discovery of dominance. What do you think happened
when a tall plant was crossed with a short? You might expect medium-sized plants but, in fact, all
the hybrids were tall.
Mendel expressed this by saying that tallness was dominant over shortness. Shortness was
then called a recessive trait. In every case, one trait was found to be dominant. In this case, it
didn’t matter which parent contributed the pollen and which the egg, a tall-short hybrid was
always tall. When the hybrids self-fertilized, about one-fourth of their offspring were short.
Continuing the self-fertilization, Mendel found that about one tall in three produced only talls,
while the others yielded both talls and shorts in the ratio 3:1. The shorts bred only shorts.
Mendel’s interpretation: There is something in pollen and egg which determines the height of
pea plants. This something is called a gene. The gene may be one of two distinct types or
alleles. One allele, A, is for tallness; the other one, a, is for shortness.
A plant may have the same or different alleles. The allele A is dominant over a. That is, the
plant with the combination Aa is tall. The alleles do not “blend.” So what happens when AA
breeds with AA? Pollen and egg each get one copy of the gene. In this case, the alleles are the
same—A—so the offspring will again be AA or tall. Likewise, aa can yield only aa. These are
the stable short and tall varieties.
Mendel’s first hybrid was a cross between AA and aa: the pollen (or egg) from AA contains
only A while the egg (or pollen) from aa contains only a. The result, therefore, is Aa which is tall.
When the hybrid self-fertilizes, its alleles, A and a, are sorted out randomly among the pollen
grains and eggs. Both A and a appear in roughly equal proportions. There are, in fact, four
possibilities:
1. short pollen, short egg
2. tall pollen, short egg
3. short pollen, tall egg
4. tall pollen, tall egg
which are summarized in this square wherein each possible offspring appears in one of the
small boxes:

A AP
ol
g le
Eg AA n
a a
aA Aa

aa

7
 Here again are the hybrid’s descendants as Mendel observed them. The first generation
agrees with the crossing square:

A A

AA
a a
aA Aa

aa

Mendel also crossed pea plants with smooth and wrinkled seeds; with purple and white
flowers, etc. In every case, he found the characteristics to be controlled by a single gene with two
different alleles, one of which was dominant over the other.
With this, Mendel concluded that heredity is controlled by these “atoms of inheritance” or
genes which never break or blend, maintaining their characteristics from generation to generation.
Finally, Mendel made crosses between plants differing in two characteristics—for example,
a tall plant with smooth seeds and a short plant with wrinkled seeds. The question we now ask is:
Are height and smoothness correlated somehow or do they act independently when the plant
reproduces?
Let us take a closer look at this.
Let us call the allele for smooth seeds S and that for wrinkled seeds s. S is dominant so a
cross between a pea plant with smooth seeds and one with wrinkled seeds produces a pea plant
with smooth seeds as in:

+ =

SS ss Ss

8
 Now, for the self-pollination of the hybrid: If the genes for height and smoothness sort out
independently of each other, then all these possible pollens and eggs would be equally likely:

AASS aass

AS as

AaSs

In which case, the crossing square would look like this:

AASS
AAsS AASs

aAsS AAss AaSS

aAsS aASs AasS AaSs

aAss aaSS Aass

aasS aaSs
aass

Or 1 AASS
2 AASs 9 tall, smooth
2 AaSS
4 AaSs
1 AAss 3 tall, wrinkled
2 Aass
1 aaSS 3 short, smooth
2 aaSs
1 aass 1 short, wrinkled

9
 And this is what Mendel observed—a ratio of 9:3:3:1. This experiment and others with
different combinations proved the principle of independent assortment which states that the
alleles of one gene sort out independently of the alleles of another.
Geneticists distinguish between an organism’s phenotype—what it looks like—and its
genotype—what alleles it has.

AA Aa

An organism is homozygous with respect to a given gene if its two alleles are the same and
heterozygous if they’re different.

ss Ss
homozygous heterozygous

Let’s Study and Analyze

If you see a dominant phenotype, how can you tell if it’s a heterozygote? For instance, in
humans, brown eyes are dominant over blue. Let us call the genes B and b, respectively.
How can we tell if a brown-eyed person is BB or Bb?
One way is to cross him/her
with a recessive homozygote, i.e., a
blue-eyed person, bb.
brown blue If any of their little hybrids has
blue eyes, the brown-eyed parent
must have been a heterozygote, Bb. If
he/she had been BB, all the children
would have been Bb, with brown
eyes.

10
 Let’s Learn

The following are some examples of dominant and recessive genes in humans:
1. Brown eyes are dominant over blue eyes.
2. Color vision is dominant over color blindness.
3. Hairy heads are dominant over bald ones.
4. The ability to curl the tongue is dominant over the inability to do so.
5. Extra fingers are dominant over five fingers (Odd but true!).
6. A double dose of recessives also cause such rare diseases as hemophilia, sickle-cell
anemia, Tay-Sachs syndrome, thalassemia, dwarfism, etc.

Let’s See What You Have Learned

Match the items in Column A with their definitions/descriptions in Column B. Write the
letters of the correct answers only.
Column A Column B
______1. Genetics a. The belief that living organisms could
arise spontaneously from nonliving
______2. Spontaneous generation matter
______3. Francesco Redi b. The study of inheritance

______4. Anton Van Leeuwenhook c. The scientist who discovered that all
animals were sexual beings
______5. William Harvey d. The Italian scientist who successfully
challenged spontaneous generation
______6. Camerarius
e. The scientist who discovered that
______7. Sport plants had sex organs too just like
animals and were also capable of
______8. Gregor Mendel fertilization
______9. Dominant trait f. The scientist who studied the
development of the chick embryo and
_____10. Recessive trait was convinced that all animals came
from eggs
_____11. Gene
g. The Augustinian monk who
_____12. Allele experimented on his pea plants and
made important discoveries in the
_____13. Principle of independent field of genetics in the process
assortment

_____14. Phenotype

11
______15. Genotype h. An offspring different from both
parents
______16. Homozygous
i. A trait less likely to appear in an
______17. Heterozygous offspring
j. A trait more likely to appear in an
offspring
k. A type of gene
l. That something which determines the
characteristics of an offspring
m. How an organism looks like
n. States that the alleles of one gene sort
out independently of the alleles of
another
o. When the two alleles of a gene are
the same
p. What alleles an organism has
q. When the two alleles of a gene are
different

Compare your answers with those in the Answer Key on page 36. How well did you do?

Let’s Remember

♦ Genetics is the study of inheritance.

♦ The belief that living organisms can arise spontaneously from nonliving matter is called
the principle of spontaneous generation.
♦ Francisco Redi is an Italian scientist who successfully challenged the principle of
spontaneous generation.
♦ Anton Van Leeuwenhook discovered that all animals were sexual beings.
♦ William Harvey studied the development of the chick embryo and was convinced that
all animals came from eggs.
♦ Camerarius discovered that plants had sex organs too just like animals and that they
were also capable of fertilization.
♦ A sport is an offspring that is different from both its parents.
♦ Gregor Mendel was an Augustinian monk who experimented with his pea plants and
made important discoveries in the field of genetics in the process.
♦ A dominant trait is one that is more likely to appear in an offspring while a
recessive trait is one that is less likely to do so.
12
♦ A gene is that something which determines the characteristics of an offspring.
♦ An allele is a type of gene.
♦ The principle of independent assortment states that the alleles of one gene sort out
independently of the alleles of another.
♦ Phenotype determines what an organism will look like while genotype determines
what genes it will have.
♦ A gene is homozygous if its two alleles are the same and is heterozygous if they are
different.
♦ Mendel’s experiment’s principal results are:
1. Hereditary traits are governed by genes which retain their identities in hybrids.
Genes are never blended together.
2. One form (allele) of a gene may be dominant over another but recessive genes
will pop up later.
3. Each adult organism has two copies of each gene—one from each parent. When
pollen or sperm and eggs are produced, they each get one copy.
4. Different alleles are sorted out to sperm and egg randomly and independently. All
combinations of alleles are equally likely.

13
 LESSON 2

How Come We Are What We Are?

As early as the 1600s, Robert Hooke had already noticed the cellular structure of cork. But
it wasn’t until the 1800s, armed with better microscopes, that he realized that all of us are divided
into little compartments.
Did you know that the average human contains trillions of cells? Other creatures such as
protozoa consist of only a single cell. Cells come in different shapes and sizes. Moreover,
scientists saw that all cells come from the division of a pre-existing cell. Before division,
everything in the cell is doubled. There is, therefore, no spontaneous generation of cells, says
Louis Pasteur.

Let’s Read

Did you know that . . .

1. the “super male” combination XYY occurs in about one birth in a thousand? XYY
children grow up to be normal males though they were believed to end up in prison
about 20 times more often than the rest of the population. This is because about five
percent of all prisoners then had an extra Y chromosome.
2. sex determination is handled in all sorts of ways though many species have the same
system as we do? Among birds, it is the opposite.

14
 3. when the larva of the marine worm, bonella, settles on the ocean floor, it develops into
a meter-long female? But when the larva lands on a female, it worms its way into her
body, in which case, it matures into a male, just a centimeter long and passes its whole
life inside the female.
4. certain protozoa have two sexes, they differ only in a single gene. These organisms
usually reproduce asexually because finding an appropriate partner is not that easy.
5. humans exhibit several defects that appear to be sex-linked? For example, most bald
and color-blind people and hemophiliacs are men.

Let’s Learn

Let us see how sex-linked genes are passed along.

Suppose a normal woman, XX, has children by a bald man, XbaldY.

The daughters, XbaldX, are all carriers but not bald themselves. Why? This is because even if
women have the baldness allele on one X chromosome, they usually have the dominant nonbald
on the other. It only shows up in men because the Y chromosome has no allele for that gene at all.
In the absence of a dominant allele, the recessive is, therefore, expressed. So, the daughters still
carry the recessive gene. The sons, on the other hand, are normal. Baldness would only appear in
the next generation even if the man and the carrier marries. On the average, half their daughters
will be carriers and half the sons will be bald. You can, therefore, only inherit baldness from a
maternal grandfather and not your own father.
Hemophilia follows the same pattern as baldness.

15
 Let’s Think About This

If your paternal grandfather was bald, would any of your brothers become bald as well?
It is only possible for one or more of your brothers to become bald if your maternal
grandfather is bald. This is because only your mother can become a carrier of the gene for
baldness.

Let’s Learn

Science had gone very far by the early nineteenth century. Mendel and his heirs had polished
off all those old puzzles: the role of mother and father, the nature of hybrids and sports, what
determines and even what causes the qualities of living things. All these had been explained in
terms of genes. Genes had been located, mapped and their patterns of inheritance analyzed. Only
one question remained: What are genes and how do they work?
To answer this, scientists studied the bacterium, Escherechia coli or E. coli, that thrives in
the intestines of apes and humans. Refer to the figure below to look at this bacterium closely.

Its features include the following:

1. a single chromosome containing the genetic material;
2. some long strands with double balls sliding along them which are the site of some
activities;
3. some large, lumpy molecules that pull apart and put together various long, stringy things
in the middle part; and
4. tiny bits of raw material and plenty of water all around.
These are, in turn, made up of six different elements, namely, hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen,
oxygen, sulfur and phosphorus.
In a cell, these are joined together to form molecules. The simplest and most abundant of
which is water, H2O. Another small one is the pyramid-shaped phosphate, PO4. A bit bigger are
the ring-shaped sugars such as glucose, C6H12O6. But most kinds of molecules in the living cell
are enormous, consisting of thousands of atoms. These macromolecules, though large, are
generally made by stringing together many copies of identical subunits. Polysaccharides, for
example, are just chains of sugar molecules. Typical examples of these are starch and cellulose.

16
 Lipids are classes of more complex macromolecules having at least one macromolecule
repelled by water. Lipids form a major component of cell membranes and include animal fats and
vegetable oils.
But the most important of these in genetics are the nucleic acids and proteins. The building
blocks for nucleic acids are called nucleotides. An individual nucleotide itself has three
components: a sugar, a phosphate and a base. Study the illustration below.

base
sugar

phosphate

These are hooked together to make a long sugar-phosphate backbone with a sequence of
bases sticking out as shown below.

Sugars may be one of two kinds, as in:

deoxyribose

ribose

17
 In any given nucleic acid macromolecule, all the sugars are the same. Nucleic acids with
ribose are called ribonucleic acid or RNA. Those with deoxyribose are called
deoxyribonucleic acid or DNA.

Let’s Think About This

What is the difference between RNA and DNA? Write your answer below.
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
Compare your answer with mine below.
RNA is the nucleic acid containing the sugar ribose that is present in all living cells and plays
an important part in the synthesis of proteins. DNA, on the other hand, is the nucleic acid that
forms the material of which the chromosomes and genes of almost all living organisms are
composed, containing coded instructions for the transmission of genetic information from one
generation to the next and for the manufacture of all the proteins that are required for the growth
and development of a whole new organism.

Let’s Learn

Proteins are the most complicated macromolecules of all. In fact, the biologist Max Perutz
spent most of his carrier just studying one of them—hemoglobin, the protein that carries oxygen
through the bloodstream. Yet, in a certain sense, proteins are simple too. Like other
macromolecules, they are long chains of smaller subunits. The subunits of protein molecules are
amino acids. The typical amino acid looks like this:

Other
Atoms

It’s that cluster of other atoms that complicates matters. These include glycine, leucine,
cysteine, phenalalanine, tryptophan and asparagine. Any two of them can join together to form a
peptode and some more and you get a polypeptode or protein chain.
Every protein has a precise number and sequence of amino acids. Mutual attractions among
them cause the chain to coil up into a fairly compact but flexible shape. What do proteins do for a
cell?

18
 Most proteins are enzymes. These pull apart or put together other molecules. Each enzyme
is responsible for just one specific reaction. A typical enzyme lies in wait for the right molecules to
come around. The enzyme binds to the small molecules and combines with them to form a new
molecule which is released. The enzyme itself remains unchanged in the process. In a similar way,
digestive enzymes break down large molecules. Several kinds, for example, chop sugars off
polysaccharides.
Proteins are important because movements or reactions of living things are always driven by
some enzyme. For example, when chemicals come up through the roots of the banana tree, the
plant’s enzymes convert them into the constituents of a banana. When the gorilla eats the banana,
the ape’s enzymes digest the fruit and turn it into an ape and likewise for E. coli which has its own
enzymes. In other words, an organism is made of its enzymes. And what do you think makes
enzymes?
The relationship between genes and enzymes first became clear in the 1940s with the
experiments of George Beadle and Edward Tatum. They worked with mutant strains of the
common bread mold, neurospora, grown in baths of chemical nutrients. They found out that the
metabolic role of the genes is to make enzymes. Each gene is also responsible for one specific
enzyme. In short, one gene, one enzyme. But still, nobody understood what genes were. A first
attempt toward this was made by Fred Griffith. He experimented on the pneumonia bacterium,
pneumococcus. He used two kinds of this bacterium—the deadly “wild” one and the harmless
“mutant” one. Eventually, he found out that the genes of the “wild” type can survive boiling and
infiltrate live mutants transforming the harmless bacteria into the deadly “wild” type.
In the 1940s, Oswald Avery set out to identify this “transforming factor.” He found out that
this was DNA. All they knew then was that each DNA contained the sugar deoxyribose, plenty
of phosphate and four bases, namely, adenine, A, cytosine, C, guanine, G and thymine, T. After
Avery, researchers began to look more closely at DNA. One particular scientist named Erwin
Chargaff found out that:
1. The composition of DNA varied from one species to another particularly in the
amounts of the bases A, C, T and G.
2. In any DNA, the number of As was the same as the number of Ts. Similarly, the
number of Cs was equal to the number of Gs.

19
 Unfortunately, Chargaff didn’t know what this meant. James Watson and Francis Crick, by
playing with scale-model atoms came up with the answer. They found out that the As fitted
together with the Ts while the Gs paired naturally with the Cs. Each base pair was held together
by hydrogen bonding, a weak attraction that may occur between a hydrogen atom on one
molecule and a nonhydrogen atom on another molecule. It was also clear that A did not fit with C
nor G with T. The figure below shows how a DNA strand looks like.

Each DNA strand is shaped like a double helix. Watson and Crick’s model clearly explains
Chargaff’s earlier observation that the number of Ts is equal to the number of As and Ts and As
are always paired together. The same goes for the Gs and Cs. This illustrates the principle of
complementarity, which states that each base can pair with only one called its complement. In
fact, it is the key to the gene’s main functions—replication and protein synthesis.

20
 Let’s Review

Explain the relationship between genes and enzymes in terms of their roles in genetics.
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________

Compare what you wrote with the sample answer in the Answer Key on page 36. How
well did you do?

Let’s Learn

Gene copying or DNA replication, as Watson and Crick saw, is simple in principle. Each
strand of the double helix contains the information necessary to make its complementary strand.
Refer to the schematic diagram of this below.

When the DNA is ready to multiply, its two strands

pull apart. Along each one, a new strand forms in the only
possible way and we wind up with two copies of the
original.
Whatever the details, the principle of
complementarity is the key to replication as well as to the
gene’s second main function—making enzymes.
Enzymes and other proteins come in many shapes but
in an important aspect they are all alike. Unfold any
protein and you’ll find it’s simply a chain of amino acids. If
we let go of the ends, the protein will refold itself owing to
the mutual attractions among the components. That is, the
sequence determines the structure.
In view of the relationship between genes and
proteins, this suggests that the sequence of the DNA must
somehow parallel the sequence of the protein. In other
words, the sequence of base pairs may be thought of as a
series of “words” specifying the order of amino acids in
each protein.

21
 So, how does replication happen in higher-order life-forms? Read on to find out.
The cells of plants, animals and other advanced creatures or any cell with a nucleus is called
a eukaryote, meaning “good nucleus” in Greek. Eukaryotes contain all sorts of bodies but the
key is the nucleus which contains the chromosomes.
The tiny bacteria with their simpler structure are called prokaryotes, meaning “before
nucleus” in Greek. The idea is that prokaryotes must have evolved before the more complicated
eukaryotes.
Eukaryotes and prokaryotes share the same basic genetic equipment and in all life-forms,
the genetic code is the same—a fact which strongly suggests that we all come from a common
ancestor. But there are big differences between prokaryotes and eukaryotes.
To start with, eukaryotes have all their ribosomes outside the nucleus separated from the
genes by a membrane. So, how do eukaryotes make proteins? The answer is that the nuclear
membrane has pores big enough to allow RNA and various enzymes like RNA polymerase to
pass through but ribosomes are too big to fit.
Another difference between eukaryotes and prokaryotes is in the sheer number of genes:
200000 in a human (eukaryote) and 4000 in E. coli (prokaryote).
A third peculiarity in eukaryotic genes is that they harbor lots of so-called repetitive DNA.
These are sequences of nucleotides which repeat themselves many times. Humans, for example,
have one sequence of some 300 base pairs which appears nearly a million times. This is a
substantial chunk of our total! What can it mean?
A possible answer is that these sequences consist of “selfish DNA” which contributes
nothing to the organism. Encoding no enzymes, it may be just “hitching a ride” on our
chromosomes. And where might these genetic hitchhikers come from?
One possibility is that they come from viruses, the simplest living things known.

22
 Let’s Try This

Fill up the crossword below using the given clues.

Across Down
1. Also known as DNA replication 2. The principle that is important in
DNA replication as well as making
4. A chain of amino acids
enzymes
5. The _____ determines the structure.
3. The simplest living things
7. ______ DNA are sequences of
6. Literally means “good nucleus”
nucleotides which repeat themselves many
times. 8. Allow RNA and various enzymes
like RNA polymerase to pass
10. Literally means “before nucleus”
through
9. The kind of DNA which contributes
nothing to an organism
Compare your answers with those found in the Answer Key on page 37. How well did you
do?

23
 Let’s Learn

As microscopes improved, the cell’s internal structure emerged. First of all, there was the
nucleus and within the nucleus can be found chromosomes.
Careful study revealed what happens to chromosomes during cell division.

First, while still invisible, the chromosomes duplicate

themselves remaining attached to a spot called the centromere.

Next, they thicken and shorten becoming visible under the

microscope.

The membrane around the nucleus dissolves and a fibrous

spindle forms on which the chromosomes line up.

The centromeres divide as the spindle fibers tug the

chromosome pairs apart.

The chromosomes arrive at the opposite poles and the

spindle disperses.

The nuclear membrane reforms, the chromosomes unwind

into invisibility and the cell divides.

24
 The process of mitosis is very accurate. It ensures that every “daughter” cell gets a perfect
and complete set of chromosomes. In particular, the number of chromosomes will be the same in
every cell. Each species has its characteristic chromosome number. For example, humans have
46, mosquitoes have 6, dogs have 78, cats, 34, goldfish, 94 and cabbages, 18.
Notice that all these numbers are even. There is a good reason for this—it was the fact that
sperm and egg are single cells with only half the normal number of chromosomes.
Here’s how it works. The sperm and egg, the germ cells or gametes, as they are known,
each carries a half set of chromosomes. At fertilization, their nuclei unite giving the fertilized egg or
zygote a full complement of chromosomes. From this cell come all the others through mitosis.
What’s more, William Sutton discovered that each chromosome from the sperm can be
matched with an identical one from the egg during fertilization. Thus, there are really already two
copies of every chromosome in the cell. These are called homologous pairs—homologous
meaning “same shape.”
Humans, for example, with 46 chromosomes really have 23 homologous pairs: one from
each pair comes from the mother and one from the father. This suggests that there must be a
special kind of cell division just for making gametes. This process, called meiosis, is actually a
double division.

As in mitosis, the chromosomes double and thicken.

But then, the homologous chromosomes pair off somehow.

Again, the spindle fibers form and the chromosome

quartets line up.

And the pairs are separated. Note the difference from

mitosis.

25
 When they reach the poles, the spindle vanishes and new
spindles form the other way.

The chromosomes then separate as in mitosis.

Meiosis results in four cells each with half the chromosomes of the original. Remember
though that the chromosomes follow the principle of independent assortment too.

Let’s Review

Differentiate mitosis from meiosis. Write your answer in the space provided below.
______________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________

Compare your answer with the sample answer in the Answer Key on page 37. How well
did you do?

26
 Let’s Learn

Connecting what was recently discovered about chromosomes with the discoveries of
Mendel, it was concluded that chromosomes behaved like genes. They retain their identities in
hybrids and segregate independently when germ cells are made. Therefore, it’s logical to assume
that genes lie on chromosomes.
The discovery of homologous pairs finalized the connection to Mendel’s findings. It was
concluded that the two copies of a given gene lie at the same point on homologous chromosomes.
But not all organisms have a double set of chromosomes. Many lower species like some
fungi have just a single set.
A cell with a single set of chromosomes is called a haploid while one with two sets is called
a diploid. Our body cells are diploids while our germ cells are haploids.
Diploid organisms include all the familiar mammals and birds and many plants. Haploids
include male honey bees, many fungi and asexual one-celled creatures.
Besides all these, there are also polyploid organisms with multiple sets of chromosomes. A
surprising number of everyday plants are polyploids.
The only remaining problem with Mendel’s theory was the principle of independent
assortment.

Let’s Review

Define the following terms.

1. Haploid
_________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________
2. Diploid
_________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________
3. Polyploid
_________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________

Compare your answers with those in the Answer Key on page 37. How well did you do?

27
 Let’s Learn

So, do genes assort independently or not? Well, it turned out to be sort of half and half.
There is linkage between certain genes but chromosomes also engage in a good deal of gene
swapping or crossing over.
To give an example, look at the following.
The genes p and d are on the same chromosome but chromosomes can exchange genes in a
process called crossing over.

During meiosis, homologous pairs line up with

corresponding alleles opposite one another.

At certain points, seemingly “chosen” at random, the

chromosomes touch.

Some segments cross over.

When they separate, they have new combinations of

alleles.

When this happens to our heterozygote, some of the resulting gametes get the “recombinant”
chromosomes. Hence, the exceptional crosses! Because of crossing over, the chromosomes you
pass along to your offspring are not exactly your own but rather a shuffled-together combination.

28
 Let’s Review

Explain the process of crossing over in your own words. Write your answer in the space
provided below.
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________

Compare your answer with the sample answer in the Answer Key on page 37. How well
did you do?

Let’s Learn

Once crossing over was discovered, it was quickly seen to be the key to chromosome
mapping. Two genes which are close together are rarely separated by a cross over. At greater
distances they are separated more frequently and at very great distances they are completely
independent. That is, crossing over frequency increases with distance.
The only remaining question about genetics is: What determines sex?
It’s in the genes! Not long after homologous chromosomes were discovered, somebody
noticed an exception—human males have one pair that is not homologous. The larger of these
chromosomes was called X, the smaller, Y.
The only genetic difference between human males and females is this—females have two X
chromosomes while males have one X and one Y. The other 22 pairs of chromosomes are the
same.

Let’s Review

So, what determines sex? Write your answer in the space provided below.
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________

Compare your answer with the sample answer in the Answer Key on page 38. How well
did you do?

29
 Let’s See What You Have Learned

Match the items in Column A with their definitions/descriptions in Column B. Write the
letters of the correct answers only.
Column A Column B
______ 1. Molecule a. An enormous molecule made by stringing
together many copies of identical subunits
______ 2. Macromolecule
b. Consists of elements that are joined
______ 3. Lipid
together in a cell
______ 4. Nucleotide
c. A building block for nucleic acids
______ 5. RNA
d. A class of more complex macromolecules
______ 6. DNA with at least one macromolecule repelled
by water
______ 7. Protein
e. Short for deoxyribonucleic acid
______ 8. Amino acid
f. Short for ribonucleic acid
______ 9. Gene copying
g. A subunit of protein molecules
______10. Gene swapping
h. The most complicated macromolecule of all
i. Also known as crossing over
j. Also known as DNA replication

Compare your answers with those in the Answer Key on page 38. How well did you do?

Let’s Remember

♦ A bonella is a marine worm that settles on the ocean floor.

♦ Escherechia coli are bacteria that thrive in the intestines of apes and humans.
♦ A molecule consists of different elements that are joined together.
♦ A phosphate is a pyramid-shaped molecule.
♦ A sugar is a ring-shaped molecule a bit bigger than a phosphate molecule.
♦ A macromolecule is an enormous molecule made by stringing together many copies
of identical subunits.
♦ A polysaccharide is a chain of sugar molecules.
♦ A lipid is a class of more complex macromolecules having at least one macromolecule
repelled by water.
♦ A nucleotide is a building block for nucleic acids.

30
♦ Ribonucleic acid or RNA refers to a nucleic acid with ribose while that with
deoxyribose is called deoxyribonucleic acid or DNA.
♦ A protein is the most complicated macromolecule of all. It is simply a chain of amino
acids.
♦ A hemoglobin is the protein that carries oxygen through the bloodstream.
♦ An amino acid is a subunit of a protein molecule.
♦ An enzyme pulls apart or puts together other molecules.
♦ A neurosporum is a mutant strain of the common bread mold grown in baths of
chemical nutrients.
♦ A pneumococcus is a pneumonia bacterium.
♦ Hydrogen bonding refers to a weak attraction that may occur between a hydrogen
atom on one molecule and a nonhydrogen atom on another molecule.
♦ The principle of complementarity states that each base can pair up with only one
other called its complement.
♦ Gene copying is also known as DNA replication.
♦ Eukaryote literally means “good nucleus” while prokaryote means “before nucleus.”
♦ The pores of the nuclear membrane are big enough to allow RNA and various
enzymes to pass through but block those that are too big to fit.
♦ Repetitive DNA are sequences of nucleotides which repeat themselves many times.
♦ Viruses are the simplest living things known.
♦ The part of the cell wherein the chromosomes can be found is called the nucleus.
♦ The centromere is that part of the cell to which the chromosomes remain attached to
during cell division.
♦ A spindle forms when the membrane around the nucleus of a cell during division
dissolves. This is where the chromosomes line up.
♦ A germ cell or a gamete is any of the two sex cells—sperm and cell.
♦ A zygote is a fertilized egg.
♦ Homologous literally means “same shape.”
♦ Meiosis is the process wherein a cell divides forming gametes.
♦ A cell with a single set of chromosomes is called a haploid while one with two sets is
called a diploid.
♦ A polyploid is an organism with multiple sets of chromosomes.
♦ Gene swapping is also known as crossing over.

31
 Well, this is the end of the module! Congratulations for finishing it. Did you like it? Did you
learn anything useful from it? A summary of its main points is given below to help you remember
them better.

Let’s Sum Up

This module tells us that:

♦ Genetics is the study of inheritance.
♦ The belief that living organisms can arise spontaneously from nonliving matter is called
the principle of spontaneous generation.
♦ Francisco Redi is an Italian scientist who successfully challenged the principle of
spontaneous generation.
♦ Anton Van Leeuwenhook discovered that all animals were sexual beings.
♦ William Harvey studied the development of the chick embryo and was convinced that
all animals came from eggs.
♦ Camerarius discovered that plants had sex organs too, just like animals, and that they
were also capable of fertilization.
♦ A sport is an offspring that is different from both its parents.
♦ Gregor Mendel was an Augustinian monk who experimented with his pea plants and
made important discoveries in the field of genetics in the process.
♦ A dominant trait is one that is more likely to appear in an offspring while a recessive
trait is one that is less likely to do so.
♦ A gene is that something which determines the characteristics of an offspring.
♦ An allele is a type of gene.
♦ The principle of independent assortment states that the alleles of one gene sort out
independently of the alleles of another.
♦ Phenotype determines what an organism will look like while genotype determines
what genes it will have.
♦ A gene is homozygous if its two alleles are the same and is heterozygous if they are
different.
♦ Mendel’s experiment’s principal results are:
1. Hereditary traits are governed by genes which retain their identities in hybrids.
Genes are never blended together.
2. One form (allele) of a gene may be dominant over another but recessive genes
will pop up later.

32
 3. Each adult organism has two copies of each gene—one from each parent. When
pollen or sperm and eggs are produced, they each get one copy.
4. Different alleles are sorted out to sperm and egg randomly and independently. All
combinations of alleles are similar.
♦ A bonella is a marine worm that settles on the ocean floor.
♦ Escherechia coli are bacteria that thrive in the intestines of apes and humans.
♦ A molecule consists of different elements that are joined together.
♦ A phosphate is a pyramid-shaped molecule.
♦ A sugar is a ring-shaped molecule a bit bigger than a phosphate molecule.
♦ A macromolecule is an enormous molecule made by stringing together many copies
of identical subunits.
♦ A polysaccharide is a chain of sugar molecules.
♦ A lipid is a class of more complex macromolecules having at least one macromolecule
repelled by water.
♦ A nucleotide is a building block for nucleic acids.
♦ Ribonucleic acid or RNA refers to a nucleic acid with ribose while that with
deoxyribose is called deoxyribonucleic acid or DNA.
♦ A protein is the most complicated macromolecule of all. It is simply a chain of amino
acids.
♦ A hemoglobin is the protein that carries oxygen through the bloodstream.
♦ An amino acid is a subunit of a protein molecule.
♦ An enzyme pulls apart or puts together other molecules.
♦ A neurosporum is a mutant strain of the common bread mold grown in baths of
chemical nutrients.
♦ A pneumococcus is a pneumonia bacterium.
♦ Hydrogen bonding refers to a weak attraction that may occur between a hydrogen
atom on one molecule and a nonhydrogen atom on another molecule.
♦ The principle of complementarity states that each base can pair up with only one
other called its complement.
♦ Gene copying is also known as DNA replication.
♦ Eukaryote literally means “good nucleus” while prokaryote means “before nucleus.”
♦ The pores of the nuclear membrane are big enough to allow RNA and various
enzymes to pass through but block those that are too big to fit.
♦ Repetitive DNA are sequences of nucleotides which repeat themselves many times.
♦ Viruses are the simplest living things known.

33
 ♦ The part of the cell wherein the chromosomes can be found is called the nucleus.
♦ The centromere is that part of the cell to which the chromosomes remain attached to
during cell division.
♦ A spindle forms when the membrane around the nucleus of a cell during division
dissolves. This is where the chromosomes line up.
♦ A germ cell or a gamete is any of the two sex cells—sperm and cell.
♦ A zygote is a fertilized egg.
♦ Homologous literally means “same shape.”
♦ Meiosis is the process wherein a cell divides forming gametes.
♦ A cell with a single set of chromosomes is called a haploid while one with two sets is
called a diploid.
♦ A polyploid is an organism with multiple sets of chromosomes.
♦ Gene swapping is also known as crossing over.

What Have You Learned?

A. Define the following terms. Use the spaces provided for your answers.
1. Genetics
_________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________

2. Phenotype
_________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________

3. Genotype
_________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________

4. Genes
_________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________

5. Chromosomes
_________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________

34
B. Answer the following questions briefly. Write your answers in the spaces provided for each
number.
1. What did Mendel find out after his experiments with his pea plants?
_________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________

2. Differentiate mitosis from meiosis.

_________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________

3. Explain how sex is determined in humans.

_________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________

Compare your answers with those in the Answer Key on page 38. Did you get a perfect
score? If you did, that’s very good. If you didn’t, just review the parts of the module you didn’t
understand very well before studying another module.

35
 Answer Key

A. Let’s See What You Already Know (pages 2–3)

1. (a) 6. (b)
2. (d) 7. (b)
3. (c) 8. (c)
4. (c) 9. (a)
5. (a) 10. (b)

B. Lesson 1
Let’s Review (page 6)
1. Francesco Redi
2. Anton Van Leeuwenhook
3. William Harvey
4. Oscar Hertwig
5. Camerarius
Let’s See What You Have Learned (pages 11–12)
1. (b) 10. (i)
2. (a) 11. (l)
3. (d) 12. (k)
4. (c) 13. (n)
5. (f) 14. (m)
6. (e) 15. (p)
7. (h) 16. (o)
8. (g) 17. (q)
9. (j)

C. Lesson 2
Let’s Review (page 21)
The metabolic role of genes is to make enzymes. Each gene is responsible for one
specific enzyme. In short, one gene, one enzyme.

36
Let’s Try This (page 23)

G E N E C O P Y I N G
O
M V
P R O T E I N I
L R
S E Q U E N C E U

U M S
K R E P E T I T I V E
A N S
R T P
Y A O S
O P R O K A R Y O T E
T I E L
E T S F
Y I
S
H

Let’s Review (page 26)

Mitosis is a type of cell division that results in the production of two daughter cells
with identical nuclei each of which contains the same number of chromosomes as the
parent nucleus. Meiosis, on the other hand, is that type in which four daughter nuclei
are produced each containing half the number of chromosomes of the parent nucleus
and resulting in the formation of male and female gametes.
Let’s Review (page 27)
1. A cell with a single set of chromosomes
2. A cell with two sets of chromosomes
3. An organism with multiple sets of chromosomes
Let’s Review (page 29)
Crossing over occurs during meiosis when homologous pairs line up with
corresponding alleles opposite one another and at certain points, seemingly chosen at
random, the chromosomes touch. Then some segments cross over. When they
separate, they have new combinations of alleles.

37
 Let’s Review (page 29)
The only genetic difference between human males and females is that females
have two X chromosomes while males have one X and one Y. The other 22 pairs of
chromosomes are the same.
Let’s See What You Have Learned (page 30)
1. (b) 6. (e)
2. (a) 7. (h)
3. (d) 8. (g)
4. (c) 9. (j)
5. (f) 10. (i)

D. What Have You Learned? (pages 34–35)

A. 1. The study of inheritance
2. Determines what an organism will look like
3. Determines what genes an organism will have
4. Something that determines the characteristics of an offspring
B. 1. He found out that:
a. Heredity traits are governed by genes which retain their identities in
hybrids.
b. One form of a gene may be dominant over another but recessive
genes will pop up later.
c. Each adult organism has two copies of each gene—one from each
parent.
d. Different alleles are sorted out to sperm and egg randomly and
independently.
2. Mitosis is a type of cell division that results in the production of two
daughter cells with identical nuclei each of which contains the same
number of chromosomes as the parent nucleus. Meiosis, on the other hand,
is that type in which four daughter nuclei are produced each containing half
the number of chromosomes of the parent nucleus and resulting in the
formation of male and female gametes.
3. The only genetic difference between human males and females is that
females have two X chromosomes while males have one X and one Y. The
other 22 pairs of chromosomes are the same.

38
 Glossary

Characteristic A distinctive quality or feature.

Chromosome A microscopic, threadlike structure in the nucleus of a cell that becomes
visible during cell division and which contains all the genetic information needed for the
development of the cell and the whole organism.
Deoxyribose The simplest type of sugar that can be found in DNA.
Hemophilia A sex-linked hereditary blood defect that occurs almost exclusively in males
and is characterized by delayed clotting of the blood and consequent difficulty in
controlling hemorrhage even after only minor injuries.
Hybrid An animal or plant produced by crossing two different species, varieties, races or
breeds.
Mutant A living organism or cell that carries a specific mutation of a gene which usually
causes it to differ from previous generations in one particular characteristic.
Nucleic acid A chain of nucleotides, either DNA or RNA, found in all living cells.
Recombinant chromosome The resulting chromosome when different alleles combine
during gene swapping.
Ribose The simplest type of sugar that can be found in RNA.
Trait An identifying feature or quality especially one that distinguishes someone’s
character.

References

Gonick, Larry and Mark Wheelis. The Cartoon Guide to Genetics. Updated edition.
New York: Harper Perrnnial, 1991.
Wagner, Robert P. “Understanding Inheritance.” Los Alamos Science. Vol. No. 20, 1992.

39