• Mendel inferred that these hybrids carried a latent genetic

factor for dwarfness, one that was masked by the expression

of another factor for tallness. He said that the latent factor
was recessive and that the expressed factor was dominant.
• He also inferred that these recessive and dominant factors
separated from each other when the hybrid plants
reproduced.
• This enabled him to explain the reappearance of the dwarf
characteristic in the next generation.
• In one experiment, Mendel crossed a pure-breeding pea plant for
round seeds with one that was pure-breeding for wrinkled seeds.
• This first generation of a cross is the P (parental) generation.
• After crossing the two varieties in the P generation , Mendel
observed the offspring that resulted from the cross.
• The offspring from the parents in the P generation are the F1 (filial
1) generation.
• Mendel examined the F1 generation of this cross, he found that
they expressed only one of the phenotypes present in the parental
generation: all the F1 seeds were round.
 RECIPROCAL CROSSES
• Mendel also conducted reciprocal crosses.
• In one cross, pollen (the male gamete)was taken from a plant
with round seeds and, in its reciprocal cross, pollen was taken
from a plant with wrinkled seeds.
• Reciprocal crosses gave the same result: all the F1 were round.
• Then he planted the F1 seeds, cultivated the plants that
germinated from them, and allowed the plants to self fertilize,
producing second generation- F2 (filial 2) generation.
• Both of the traits from the P generation emerged in
the F2 generation.
 • Mendel counted 5474 round seeds and
1850 wrinkled seeds in the F2 .
• He noticed that the number of the round and wrinkled seeds
constituted approximately a 3 to 1 ratio; that is, about 3/4 of
the F2 seeds were round and 1/4 were wrinkled.
• Mendel conducted monohybrid crosses for all seven of the
characteristics that he studied in pea plants and, in all of the
crosses, he obtained the same result: all of the F1 resembled
only one of the two parents, but both parental traits
emerged in the F2 in an approximate ratio of 3 : 1.
• Mendel performed similar experiments to study
the inheritance of five other traits: seed color,
pod shape, pod color, flower color, and flower
position
• each experiment called a monohybrid cross
because a single trait was being studied .
 MENDEL’S CONCLUSIONS
• Mendel observed that only one of the two contrasting
characteristics appeared in the hybrids and that when these
hybrids were self-fertilized, they produced two types of
progeny, each resembling one of the plants in the original
crosses.
• He found that these progeny consistently appeared in a ratio of
3:1. Thus, each trait that Mendel studied seemed to be
controlled by a heritable factor that existed in two forms, one
dominant, the other recessive.
• These factors are now called genes , their dominant and
recessive forms are called Alleles - are alternate forms of a
gene.
• Mendel proposed that each of the parental strains that he
used in his experiments carried two identical copies
of a gene( they are diploid and homozygous).
• During the production of gametes, Mendel proposed that
these two copies are reduced to one; that is, the gametes that
emerge from meiosis carry a single copy of a gene (they are
haploid).
• Mendel recognized that the diploid gene number would be
restored when sperm and egg unite to form a zygote.
• he understood that if the sperm and egg came from genetically
different plants the hybrid zygote would inherit two different
alleles, one from the mother and one from the father.
• Such an offspring is said to be heterozygous.
• Mendel realized that the different alleles that are present in a
heterozygote must coexist even though one is dominant and
the other recessive, and that each of these alleles would have
an equal chance of entering a gamete when the heterozygote
reproduces.
• He realized that random fertilizations with a mixed
population of gametes—half carrying the dominant allele
and half carrying the recessive allele—would produce some
zygotes in which both alleles were recessive.
• Thus, he could explain the reappearance of the recessive
characteristic in the progeny of the hybrid plants.
1. The Principle of Dominance: In a heterozygote, one allele
may conceal the presence of another.
• When two different alleles are present in a genotype, only the
trait encoded by one of them—the “dominant” allele—is
observed in the phenotype.
2. The Principle of Segregation: In a heterozygote, two different
alleles segregate from each other during the formation of
gametes.
• diploid organism possesses two alleles for any particular
characteristic.
• These two alleles segregate (separate) when gametes are
formed, and one allele goes into each gamete.
• Furthermore, the two alleles segregate into gametes in equal
proportions.