CHAPTER 15
THE CHROMOSOMAL BASIS OF INHERITANCE

OUTLINE
I.  Relating Mendelism to Chromosomes
    A Mendelian inheritance has its physical basis in the behavior of chromosomes during sexual life cycles
    B Morgan traced a gene to a specific chromosome
    C Linked genes tend to be inherited together because they are located on the same chromosome
    D. Independent assortment of chromosomes and crossing over produce genetic recombinants
    E. Geneticists can use recombination data to map a chromosome’s genetic loci

II. Sex Chromosomes
    A. The chromosomal basis of sex varies with the organism
    B. Sex-linked genes have unique patterns of inheritance
III. Errors and Exceptions to Chromosomal Inheritance
    A. Alterations of chromosome number or structure cause some genetic disorders
    B. The phenotypic effects of some genes depend on whether they were inherited from the mother or father
    C. Extranuclear genes exhibit a non-Mendelian pattern of inheritance

OBJECTIVES
After reading this chapter and attending lecture, the student should be able to:
1. Explain how the observations of cytologists and geneticists provided the basis for the chromosome theory of inheritance.
2. Describe the contributions that Thomas Hunt Morgan, Walter Sutton, and A.H. Sturtevant made to current understanding of chromosomat inheritance.
3. Explain why Drosophila melanogaster is a good experimental organism.
4. Define linkage and explain why linkage interferes with independent assortment.
5. Distinguish between parental and recombinant phenotypes.
6. Explain how crossing over can unlink genes.
7. Map a linear sequence of genes on a chromosome using given recombination frequencies from experimental crosses.
8. Explain what additional information cytological maps provide over crossover maps.
9. Distinguish between a heterogametic sex and a homogamettc sex.
10. Describe sex determination in humans.
11. Describe the inheritance of a sex-linked gene such as color-blindness.
12. Explain why a recessive sex-linked gene is always expressed in human males.
13. Explain how an organism compensates for the fact that some individuals have a double dosage of sex-linked genes while others have only one.
14. Distinguish among nondisjunction, aneuploidy, and polyploidy; explain how these major chromosomal changes occur and describe the consequences.
15. Distinguish between trisomy and triploidy.
16. Distinguish among deletions, duplications, translocations, and inversions.
17. Describe the effects of alterations in chromosome structure, and explain the role of position effects in altering the phenotype.
18. Describe the type of chromosomal alterations implicated in the following human disorders: Down syndrome, Klinefelter syndrome, extra Y (Jacobs Syndrome), triple-X (Triplo-X) syndrome , Turner syndrome, cri du chat syndrome, and chronic myelogenous leukemia.
19. Define genomic imprinting and provide evidence to support this model.
20. Explain how the complex expression of a human genetic disorder, such as fragile-X syndrome, can be influenced by triplet repeats and genomic imprinting.
21. Give some exceptions to the chromosome theory of inheritance, and explain why cytoplasmic genes are not inherited in a Mendelian fashion.

KEY TERMS
 
chromosome theory of inheritance linkage map polyploidy
wild type cytological map deletion
mutant phenotype  Duchenne muscular dystrophy duplication
sex-linked genes hemophilia  Inversion
 linked genes Barr body  translocation
genetic recombination  nondisjunction Down syndrome
parental type aneuploidy fragile X syndrome
recombinants trisomic monosomic