10.

2
Mendelian Genetics
 Define heredity & genetics.
 Heredity: the passing of
characteristics (traits) from
parents to offspring

 Genetics: the study of

heredity
Describe the work of Gregor Mendel
 Gregor Mendel was the first person
to predict how traits are transferred
from parent to offspring; called the
“Father of Genetics”
 Austrian monk in the 1830’s who
was in charge of the monastery
garden
 Decided to study how traits were
passed in garden peas
 Gregor Mendel
 Why peas? Reproduce
sexually, gametes are found
on the same flower, and
fertilization could be
controlled by pollination
 Mendel transferred pollen
from plant to plant and
studied the resulting offspring
pea plants
 Mendel removed the male
parts of the flowers to prevent
uncontrolled pollination
 Gregor Mendel
 Mendel collected both quantitative data and qualitative
data: counts and descriptions
 Mendel studied only one trait at a time (height, flower
color, pea color, etc.)
 Mendel worked with true-breeders at first; those that
would only produce one type of offspring
 Then he crossed them to produce the first generation of
HYBRIDS (F1 generation)
 F1 generation only resembled one of the parents
 Mendel’s conclusions
 First Conclusion:
inheritance is determined
by factors passed from
parent to offspring (today
these are called GENES)
 The different forms of
genes are called alleles
(ex: for color gene there
are two forms: one for
black and one for white)
Mendel’s conclusions
 Second conclusion: Principle of
dominance
 Some alleles are dominant and others
are recessive
 Recessive traits can be hidden
whenever a dominant allele is present
 Dominant alleles are represented by
capital letters
 Recessive alleles are represented by
lowercase letters; in order to display a
recessive trait, two recessive alleles
must be present
Mendel’s questions about segregation.
 Mendel wanted to know if the
recessive traits had disappeared or
were they still present in the plants?
 Mendel allowed the hybrids to breed
and observed the offspring’s traits, the
recessive trait showed up again!(F2
generation)
 Mendel concluded that the alleles for
traits were separated during the
formation of gametes; this is
segregation
 Each gamete carries a single copy of
each gene
 Homozygous: means that there
are two alleles present that are the
SAME
 Heterozygous: two alleles present
that are DIFFERENT
 Genotype: the gene combination
(yy)
 Phenotype: what you see in the
organism (yellow peas)
 Define
probability.
 The chance or percent
chance of a trait being
exhibited
 Principles of probability
can be used to predict
the outcomes of genetic
crosses
 Unit 5 -- Quiz #1
1. The study of how traits are passed from parent to
offspring is called?
a. genetics b. heredity c. mendelism
2. What is the proper way to indicate a dominant trait?
a. d b. dd c. D
3. The result of mixing two true-breeders is called a ?
a. mutant b. factor c. hybrid
4. What are Mendel’s inherited “factors” called today?
a. traits b. genes c. they are still called factors
5. What is the probability of having a boy or girl with each
pregnancy?
a. 100 % b. 75% c. 50% d. 25%