Mendelian genetics

Who is considered the father of genetics?

Gregor Mendel

What did Gregor Mendel use to experiment

he used pea plants to study genetics and heredity by looking at seven different traits that only had two variations (he was studying alleles)

His work became known as Mendel’s laws

Who was close to learning about why offsprings have variations of their parents characteristics?

Charles Darwin, but he was unable to explain why

Why did Gregor Mendel use the pea plants?

grows easily and quickly

has seven traits that are easily identified

it is easy to manipulate pollination

how does self pollination work?

pollen from one plant put on the female part of another

What happens when pea plants self fertilize

they are considered purebred or true breeding

offspring have same traits generation after generation

same plant provides both the male and female gametes

What was Mendel’s experiment?

he selected purebred plants for different traits, these were called the parental or P generation, and he cross-fertilized them to see what would happen

purebred

homozygous

what happened when crossing the parental generation? ex. tall x short

all offspring were tall instead of blending, because the tall trait was dominant

what happened when Mendel let the F1 generation self-pollinate

most were tall but some were short

F1 generation

fillial generation

offspring from the cross (reproduction) of the parental/P generation

Why were some of the F2 generation tall and short

each plant in the F1 generation carried an allele from the P generation, a tall allele and a short allele. They are called hybrids

hybrids