MENDEL’S OBSERVATIONS

(i) In F1 generation- all the pea plants were tall and

none were tall.
(ii) F1 progenies always resembled one of the
parents and trait of the other parent was not
seen.
(iii) F2 generation expressed both the parental traits
in the proportion 3 : 1.
(iv) The contrasting traits (tall / dwarf) did not
show any blending either in F1 or F2 generation.
(v) In dihybrid cross, he got identical results as in
monohybrid cross.
(vi) He found that the phenotype in F2 generation
appeared in the ratio 9 : 3 : 3 : 1.
(vii) On self- pollinating F2 plants, he found that
dwarf F2 plants continue to generate dwarf
plants in F3 and F4 generations.
Monohybrid cross of true breeding pea plant
 INFERENCES OF MENDEL’S EXPERIMENTS
(i) Mendel inferred that something was being passed down, from parents to offsprings
through the gamete over successive generations. He called them ‘factors’, now called as
genes.
(ii) Genes - Unit of inheritance. They contain the information required to express a trait.
(iii) Alleles - Genes which code for a pair of contrasting traits.
(iv) In a true breeding variety, the allelic pair of genes are identical or homozygous (TT , tt).
(v) Genotype - The genetic makeup of an organism (eg., tt).
(vi) Phenotype - The physical appearance of an organism (eg., tall).
(vii) When the tall (TT) and dwarf (tt) pea plant produce gametes, the alleles of the parental
pair segregate from each other and only one allele is transmitted to a gamete. This
segregation of alleles is a random process and so there is 50% chance of a gamete
containing either allele, as verified by crossing. After fertilisation of TT and tt traits,
hybrids contain Tt and are called heterozygotes.
(viii) In a pair of dissimilar factor (Tt), one dominates the other and is called dominant
factor (T) while the other factor (t) is recessive.
MENDEL’S LAW OF INHERITANCE
Based on his observations on monohybrid crosses, he proposed two laws:

(i) Law of dominance (first law) : It states that characters are controlled by genes which occur in
pair, when two alternate forms of a trait or character (genes or alleles) are present in an
organism, only one factor expresses itself in F1 progeny and is called dominant while the other
factor which remains hidden (masked) is called recessive.

(ii) Law of segregation (second law) : It states that the factors or alleles of a pair segregate from
each other during gamete formation, in a way that a gamete receives only one of the two factors.
They do not show any blending.
(iii) Law of independent assortment (third law) : It states that when two pairs of contrasting traits
are combined in a hybrid, segregation of one pair of characters is independent of the other pair of
characters. These factors randomly rearrange in the offsprings producing both parental and new
combinations of characters. The Punnett square can be used to understand the independent
segregation of two pair of genes during meiosis.

Phenotypic ratio – 9 : 3 : 3 : 1
 QUESTIONS
1. A GENE EDITING
garden pea ON HUMANS
plant (A) produced inflated yellow pod and another plant (B) of the same
species produced constricted green pods. Identify the dominant traits. (1)
2. Write possible genotypes Mendel got when he crossed F1 tall plant with a dwarf pea plant. (1)
3. In a typical monohybrid cross, the F2 population ratio is written as 3 : 1 for phenotype but
expressed at 1 : 2 : 1 for genotype. Explain with the help of an example. (2)
4. A true breeding pea plant homozygous for axial, violet flowers is crossed with another pea
plant with terminal, white flowers (aavv). (5)
(a) What would be the phenotype and genotype of F1 and F2 generations?
(b) Give the phenotypic ration of F2 generation.
(c) List the Mendel’s generalisations that can be derived from the above cross.