The work of Mendel

Key words: Dominant, Recessive, Homozygous,

Heterozygous, phenotype, genotype

Starter: What did you find out about DNA last

lesson? Produce a mind map to summarise your
ideas.
 “How do we inherit characteristics
from our parents?”
Learning objective
✓To construct genetic crosses
using Mendel’s ideas of inheritance
✓To compare the outcomes of genetic
crosses in the first and second generation.
 Inheritance of Characteristics

https://youtu.be/SOgVM904cPc

o Our understanding of inheritance began with the work of Gregor

Mendel
• He discovered principles of genetic inheritance. He worked on
pea plant in his garden and found the way the characters are
inherited.
o Mendel found that when he crossed pink pea plants with white
pea plants all the offspring had pink flowers
 Recap

Task : How many chromosomes are in 1

body cell?
How many are in a sex cell (gamete)?
Explain the reasons for the differences.
 Mendel and his experiments
• Mendel selected the sweet pea plants for his experiments due to
following reasons;
-Many varieties of plants are available
-Easy to use them in experiments
-Easy to study the inheritance of characterstics

Some of the features that are studied by Mendel in sweet pea plants are:
Feature Dominant form recessive form
• Height of the plants Tall dwarf
• Shape of the seeds Rounded Wrinkled
• Colour of the seed Yellow green
• Colour of the flower Violet White
What are diploid organisms?
 Punnett square’s
• The Punnett square is a diagram that is used
to predict an outcome of a particular cross or
breeding experiment.
• It shows the phenotypes and genotypes of
offsprings produced in a genetic cross. It is
used to find out the phenotypic and
genotypic ratios also.
Carrying out a genetic cross

Monohybrid crosses

Genetic crosses of single gene combinations (monohybrid inheritance)

can be shown and examined using Punnett squares. This shows the
possible offspring combinations could be produced, and
the probability of these combinations can be calculated.

Example 1
• The height of pea plants is controlled by a single gene which has
two alleles: tall and short.
• The tall allele is dominant and is shown as T.
• The small allele is recessive and is shown as t.
 Inheritance of
Characteristics
White
and Pink
pea plant
bred
together

All the offspring (First generation) are

Pink
 Punnet squares
- This 1st generation occurred because the white
flower is recessive and the pink one dominant.
- In the first generation both parent flowers are
homozygous.
- Homozygous dominant= PP
- Homozygous recessive= pp

Task: Draw a punnet square to show the first

generation cross.

Extra challenge: What are the phenotypes and what

are the genotypes?
 Inheritance of
Characteristics
2 pink pea
plants from
the first
generation
crossed

The offspring (2nd generation) are pink and

white. Mendel wondered how white flowers could
disappear for a generation but then come back
 Punnet squares
- This 2nd generation occurred because
offspring in the 1st generation are both
heterozygous (1 pink allele and 1 white)
- Heterozygous = Pp

Task: Draw a punnet square to show the second

generation cross.

Extra challenge: Explain why the white flower

reappears in the second generation
P P
p p

P p
P PP Pp

p Pp pp
 Extra challenge answer
o In pea plants Pink flowers are dominant
and white flowers are recessive

For a flower to be white it must

have 2 white alleles. Since the
white colour is recessive. This
cannot occur in the 1st generation

For a flower to be pink it could

have 2 pink alleles or one white and
one pink allele. Pink is the dominant
colour.
 Task
Write a letter to Mendel explaining to him why,
when he crossed his flowers he saw white flowers
‘disappear’ for a generation but then come back.
Use punnet squares in your answer.
Hint: Remember white flowers are recessive.

Key words to include:

o Dominant
o Recessive
o Allele
o Homozygous
o Heterozygous
o Offspring ATL skills – Information literacy skills
Creative thinking skills
 Plenary
Pass your letter to Mendel to a friend.
Get them to write WWW/EBI and sign/date
your work.

Possible WWW’s/EBI’s
- Have they used the key words?
- Have they used Punnet squares?
- Have they written in full sentences and spelt
everything correctly?
- Have they explained the differences between
the first and 2nd generation?
- Have they given reason’s for these
differences?