Acquired Traits and Inherited Traits in Details – Imaluop

Hi, now we will try to understand acquired traits and inherited traits in details. If we notice carefully we can see all organisms have specific traits. Some traits present in them from birth while some traits occurs suddenly in an organism.

Now suppose a person diagnosed with a genetic disorders now from where this traits come in the person? If we find that genetic disorder in the family history of the person so we can assume that this traits come to the person from the parents of that person.

So we should call it as inherited traits. Now suppose a mutation occurs in an organism now from where this trait come to the organism? It appeared in that organism during its lifetime so we can call it acquired traits.

What are Acquired Traits:

During the lifetime of an organism an organism can get various traits and these traits are not present in them from the beginning from birth. Then you have to think about how then these characters come into them suddenly? An organism present in the environment gets exposure to various conditions.

Various environmental conditions affect different organisms in various ways. Some changes appeared in them. The reason for their change is the influence of environmental factors on them. As they acquire these traits during their lifetime not from birth so we can call them as acquired traits.

For example a person can drive a motorbike but the person was not able to drive a motorbike from birth. The person acquired the traits after birth by practice. If we notice carefully we can find more examples like this which we got after birth all are the example of acquired traits.

Darwin and Lamarck and Acquired Traits: 

Now we will know about the opinion of different scientists on Acquired Traits. First we will try to understand acquired traits in the point of Lamarck. Lamarck observed that in the lifetime of an organism they gather some traits which were not in them from birth, they acquired them later.

Lamarck called them acquired traits and Lamarck assumed that the traits which they get during their lifespan, transfer from generation to generation. But later Darwin proved that acquired traits do not transfer from one generation to another because they are not coded in DNA.

If we notice carefully we can find the evidence in everyday life. Suppose you have a great knowledge on biological sciences now do you think that your siblings would also have same knowledge from the birth.  

What are Inherited Traits:

Now what are inherited traits and how does it differ from acquired traits? Sometimes we notice that some traits on an sibling is similar to the parents. Now from where the traits come to the siblings from birth? The siblings got this trait from the parents so the trait inherited from the parents.

So the traits we can see in an organism from its birth are Inherited traits. Inherited traits always transfer from one generation to next generation. For example eye colour, skin colour, hair colour, some genetic disorders all are the examples of inherited traits.

In our each body cells 25000 to 35000 gene present which code for the inherited traits which comes from the parents cells.  

Gregor Mendel on Inherited Traits:

Gregor Mendel performed a lot of experiments on pea plants and formulated some principles on inherited traits which we know as laws of inheritance.  

• Laws of Dominance: There are two molecular forms for each gene one of them dominate over another. The traits which dominate over another trait are called dominant while the other which are not able to express them are recessive traits. In F1 generation only one between the two opposite traits(dominant) can express while the other remains in unexpressed state.

• Laws of Segregation: In F1 generation only one trait expresses but another one trait does not lose. During F2 generation the traits which were not discovered during F1 generation become visible again.

• Laws of Independent Assortment: Each pair of traits are independently during gamete formation. During gamete formation one pair of trait do not influence on another pair of trait.

Read More: Different modes of excretion in animals

Reference: Acquired Traits and Inherited Traits in Details