Taboo and Genetics - A Study of the Biological, Sociological and Psychological Foundation of the Family by Melvin Moses Knight;Phyllis Mary Blanchard;Iva Lowther Peters
page 63 of 200 (31%)
page 63 of 200 (31%)
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summarizing, by way of illustration.
Both sexes in Dorset sheep have well-developed horns; in the Suffolk breed both sexes are hornless. If the breeds are crossed, all the rams in the first (hybrid) generation have horns and all the ewes are hornless. If these hybrids are mated, the resulting male offspring averages three horned to one hornless; but the females are the reverse of this ratio--one horned to three hornless. This is an example of Mendel's principle of segregation--factors may be mixed in breeding, but they do not lose their identity, and hence tend to be sorted out or segregated again in succeeding generations. In the horned Dorsets, we must suppose that both males and females carry a dual factor for horns--technically, are _homozygous_ for horns. The hornless Suffolks, on the contrary, are homozygous for _absence_ of horns. Thus the dual factor in the zygotes or fertilized eggs at the basis of the first filial (hybrid) generation consists of a single factor for horns and a single factor for their absence. If we represent horns by _H_ and absence of horns by _A_, Dorsets have a factor _HH_, Suffolks _AA_ and the hybrids _HA_. All the males in this generation have horns, which means that a single "dose" of the factor _H_ will produce horns in a male, or that they are _dominant_ in males. But a single dose will not produce horns in a female--that is, horns are _recessive_ in females--the factor is present but unexpressed. Mating two _HA_ hybrids, the _H_ and _A_ of course split apart in the formation of the gametes, as the _HH_ and _AA_ did in the previous generation; so that we get an equal number of single _H_ and _A_ |
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