INHERITANCE

Do you look more similar to your father or mother?

All living things including animals, plants and humans share many characteristics with their parents and look similar to them.

Can you look for similarities you share with your parents in eyes, nose, mouth and complexion?

Our physical characteristics are determined by the characteristics of our parents.

The transmission of some characteristics like eye and skin colour, face shape, etc. from parents to offspring is known as inheritance. The characteristics or traits inherited from parents by their young ones are known as inherited characteristics.

Baby plants and animals often look Iike small copies of their parents because they inherit many characteristics from them.

Have you ever observed the eye colour of domestic hen?

A hen inherits eye colour from its parents. Domestic hen have a wide range of eye colours. Humans also have many inherited characteristics. We inherit these from our parents. Let's find out some of these inherited traits. Like hens, eye colour in humans is also an inherited characteristic.

Human eyes come in a wide range of colours. Like other Inherited characteristics, our eye colour usually resembles that of our parents.

EYE COLOUR IN HUMANS

In a similar way, hair colour and types are also inherited characteristics.

There is a wide variety of hair colours and types. Some of us have brown hair and some have black hair. Some of us have curly hair, while others have straight hair. Mostly our hair looks similar to that of our parents. Let's have a look on your hair.

What colour and type is your hair? Straight or curly.

Some inherited characteristics belong to our tongue and chin. Many people can roll their tongues while others can't. Some have cleft chin while others have No cleft chin. Some have a bent little finger while others have straight little finger.

KEY POINTS

• All animals, plants and humans share many characteristics with their parents.

• The transmission of characteristics like eye and skin colour, face shape, etc. from parents to offspring is called inheritance.

• The characteristics or traits inherited are known as inherited characteristics. For example eye colour is an inherited characteristic.

• Hair colour and shape are also inherited characteristics.

• Like animals and plants, humans have also inherited characteristic.

SOLVE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS

What is inheritance?
What are inherited characteristics? Give some examples of an inherited characteristics in humans?

COMPARE YOUR ANSWERS

1. The transmission of characteristics from parents to offspring is known as inheritance.

2. Characteristics or traits passed from parents to offspring called inherited characteristics.

For example your name is not an inherited characteristic but the eye colour, hair colour and hair shapes are inherited characteristics.

INHERITANCE AND INHERITED DISEASES

HAEMOPHILIA

Haemophilia is an inherited infection. It could be a hereditary fumble that exchange from parents to there offspring. In this disease, body decrease or loss the ability of making blood clots. This can be a disadvantage in individuals dying for a longer time after a damage, simple bruising, and an raising chance of dying interior brain and joints.

Causes of Hemophilia

Hemophilia is caused by a transformation or alter, in one among the genes, that gives informational for making the coagulation of proteins. This sort of mutation can anticipate the clotting protein from working appropriately. These qualities are display within the X chromosome.

CYSTIC FIBROSIS (CF)

Cystic fibrosis (CF) is additionally a hereditary condition that affects mostly the lungs conjointly the pancreas, liver, kidneys, and guts. Indications of CF counting trouble in breathing and coughing with mucus as comes about of visit lung diseases. Sinus diseases, destitute development, greasy stools, and male barrenness are moreover can happen due to cystic fibrosis. Distinctive individuals may have distinctive degrees of side effects.

THALASSAEMIA

Thalassaemia is a disorder of inherited conditions that affect a substance within the blood called haemoglobin. Individuals with thalassaemia create either no or inadequately hemoglobin, which is utilized by red blood cells to hold oxygen circular the body. This will make them exceptionally anaemic.

Symptoms of thalassaemia

Most individuals born with thalassaemia involvement wellbeing issues from a couple of months after birth. Less serious cases might not be discernible until afterward in childhood or possibly until adulthood. The main health problems associated with thalassaemia are:

anaemia
severe tiredness
weakness
shortness of breath
irregular heartbeats (palpitations)
pale skin caused by the shortage of haemoglobin

There is too much iron within the body this is often caused by the regular blood transfusions won' t to treat anaemia and may cause problems with the guts, liver and hormone levels if untreated. A few individuals can moreover have deferred growth, powerless and fragile bones (osteoporosis) and diminished fertility.

Causes of thalassaemia

Thalassaemia is caused by defected genes that influence the concentration of hemoglobin. A child can as it were alter state with thalassaemia on the off chance that they acquire these defective genes from both parents. For illustration, on the off chance that both parents have the flawed gene that causes beta Cooley's anemia, there's a 1 in 4 chance of each child they require being born with the condition. The parents of a little child with thalassaemia are as a rule carriers. This recommends they as it were have 1 of the defective genes.