Polygenic Inheritance in Plants
Kernel Color of the Wheat
The kernel color of wheat is controlled by three pairs of alleles, R1R1R2R2, and r1r1r2r2. The dark red dominant wheat kernel is represented by AABBCC and the white recessive color is represented by R1r1R2r2. The offspring produced in the F1 generation will be red in color with genotype AaBbCc. Self-breeding of F1 plants will produce 64 offsprings, of which 63 are red kernel plants with varying shades and 1 is white.
A total of 64 offspring were formed out of which, 1 is dark red, 6 are moderate red, 15 are red, 20 are intermediate red, 15 are light red, 6 are very light red, and 1 is white.
What is Polygenic Inheritance?
Polygenic inheritance is a type of inheritance in which multiple genes control the phenotype of an organism. The phenotypes or traits can be height, skin color, the color of the eyes, etc. This type of inheritance is also known as quantitative inheritance or multifactorial inheritance. Such traits are known as polygenic traits. It is different from mendelian genetic inheritance in a number of genes controlling the traits. Polygenic inheritance can be seen in animals as well as plants. Every gene that controls traits is not necessarily equal. However, environmental factors also play an important role in polygenic inheritance. Polygenic inheritance has important implications for our understanding of complex diseases and traits, as well as for conservation and agricultural breeding.
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