Question

During a science lecture on evolution and inheritance, Amit got confused and went to clear his doubts. He asked, if characters can be passed to the future generation, then why does not he have the tattoo that his mother has on her arm. The teacher smiled and told him about inherited and acquired characters.

(i) What are inherited and acquired characters? 

(ii) The tattoo on the arm of Amit’s mother was not present on Amit’s arm. Give a scientific reason. 

(iii) What values are shown by Amit?

Answer 1

(i) INHERITED TRAITS:- characters which an organism get through its parents in his genome. They are lifetime traits & cannot be altered.

ACQUIRED TRAITS:- traits which we acquire or generates in our whole life time. They are inheritable because they are not related to our genome. 

(ii) the tattoo is an acquired trait which Amit's mother has done in during her lifetime. This trait hasn't affected her genome & thus is inheritable. Due to this reason, Amit doesn't have that tattoo which her mother had. 

(iii) Amit is a curious child, who doesn't hesitate in asking his doubts. It is a very good quality of Amit which will help him in taking decisions without any doubt or unclarity. 

Moreover, he used to be a keen observer who has noticed the presence to tattoo on his mother's arm and absence of that tattoo on his arm.