Question

How do specific traits or characteristics appear in organisms? (Can you tell; Textbook Page No. 180)

Answer 1

Answer:

• Information necessary for synthesis of a particular protein is stored in the DNA.
• The segment of DNA which contains all the information for synthesis of a particular protein is called a gene for that protein.
• To understand how a specific trait is expressed, let us consider plant height as an example.
• We know that there are growth hormones in plants. Increase in the height of plants depends upon the quantity of growth hormones.
• The quantity of growth hormone produced by a plant depends upon the efficiency of the concerned enzyme.
• Efficient enzymes produce a greater quantity of the hormone due to which the height of the plant increases.
• However, if the enzymes are less efficient, a smaller quantity of hormone is produced leading to the stunting of the plant.
• Thus, the expression of traits is controlled by the genes.