Mendel’s Peas

Easy to grow.
Easily identifiable traits
Can work with large numbers of
samples
Mendel’s experiments
The first thing Mendel did was create a
“pure” generation or true-breeding
generation.
He made sure that certain pea plants
were only able to self pollinate,
eliminating unwanted traits.
He did this by cutting away the stamen,
or male part of each flower
 Mendel’s Experiments
Mendel noticed that some plants always produced offspring
that had a form of a trait exactly like the parent plant. He
called these plants “purebred” plants. For instance, purebred
short plants always produced short offspring and purebred tall
plants always produced tall offspring.

X
Purebred Short Parents Short Offspring

Purebred Tall Parents Tall Offspring

Genes and dominance
Trait : a characteristic
Mendel studied seven of these traits
After Mendel ensured that his true-
breeding generation was pure, he then
crossed plants showing contrasting
traits.
He called the offspring the F1 generation
or first filial.
What will happen when pure
yellow peas are crossed with
pure green peas?
All of the
offspring were
yellow.
Hybrids = the
offspring of
crosses between
parents with
contrasting traits
 What did Mendel
conclude?
Inheritance is determined by factors
passed on from one generation to
another.
Mendel knew nothing about
chromosomes, genes, or DNA. Why?
These terms hadn’t yet been defined.
 What were Mendel’s
“factors”
The ‘factors” that Mendel mentioned
were the genes.
Each gene has different forms called
alleles
Mendel’s second principle stated that
some alleles are dominant and some
are recessive.
Mendel’s second cross
He allowed the F1 generation to self-
pollinate thus producing the F2
generation.
Did the recessive allele completely
disappear?
What happened when he crossed two
yellow pea hybrid (F1) plants?
 Results:

¾ of the peas were yellow, ¼ of

the peas were green.
During the formation of the sex cells or
gametes, the alleles separated or
segregated to different gametes. (pollen
and egg)
 Mendel’s Second
Experiment
Mendel then crossed two of the offspring tall plants produced
from his first experiment.

Parent Plants Offspring

Tall 3⁄4 Tall & 1⁄4 Short

F1 generation F2 generation

Mendel called this second generation of plants the second

filial, F2, generation. To his surprise, Mendel observed that
this generation had a mix of tall and short plants. This
occurred even though none of the F1 parents were short.
Probability
The likelihood of a
particular event
occurring. Chance
Can be expressed
as a fraction or a
percent.
Example: coin flip.
 Punnett Square
Developed by
Reginald Punnett.
A diagram used to
show the probability
or chances of a
certain trait being
passed from one
generation to
another.
Dominant and Recessive
Genes
Mendel went on to reason that one factor (gene) in a pair
may mask, or hide, the other factor. For instance, in his
first experiment, when he crossed a purebred tall plant with
a purebred short plant, all offspring were tall. Although the
F1 offspring all had both tall and short factors, they only
displayed the tall factor. He concluded that the tallness
factor masked the shortness factor.

Today, scientists refer to the “factors” that control traits as

genes. The different forms of a gene are called alleles.

Alleles that mask or hide other alleles, such as the “tall”

allele, are said to be dominant.
A recessive allele, such as the short allele, is masked, or
covered up, whenever the dominant allele is present.
 Reading Punnett
squares
Gametes are placed above and to the
left of the square
Offspring are placed in the square.
Capital letters (Y) represent dominant
alleles.
Lower case letters (y) represent
recessive alleles.
Punnett square example
Homozygous = when an organism
possesses two identical alleles. ex.
 YY or yy
Heterozygous = when an organism
possesses different alleles. ex.
 Yy
 Homozygous Genes
What Mendel refered to as a “purebred” plant we now know
this to mean that the plant has two identical genes for a
particular trait. For instance, a purebred tall plant has two tall
genes and a purebred short plant has two short genes. The
modern scientific term for “purebred” is homozygous.

short-short short-short short-short

Short Parents Short Offspring

According to Mendel’s Law of Segregation, each parent donates

one height gene to the offspring. Since each parent had only
short genes to donate, all offspring will also have two short
genes (homozygous) and will therefore be short.
 Hybrid Alleles
In Mendel’s first experiment, F1 offspring plants received one
tall gene and one short gene from the parent plants. Therefore,
all offspring contained both alleles, a short allele and a tall
allele. When both alleles for a trait are present, the plant is said
to be a hybrid for that trait. Today, we call hybrid alleles
heterozygous. tall-tall short-tall short-tall
short-short

Parent Short Parent Tall Offspring Tall

P generation P generation F1 generation
Although the offspring have both a tall and a short allele, only
the tall allele is expressed and is therefore dominant over short.
 Dominant Alleles
Mendel observed a variety of dominant alleles in pea plants
other than the tall allele. For instance, hybrid plants for seed
color always have yellow seeds.

Green & Yellow Allele Yellow Seed

However, a plant that is a hybrid for pod color always
displays the green allele.

Green & Yellow Allele Green Pod

In addition, round seeds are dominant over wrinkled seeds,
and smooth pods are dominant over wrinkled pods.
 Phenotype vs genotype
Phenotype
Genotype
 Physical
The genetic
appearance
makeup of the organism
 Expression
Symbolized of with
theletters
trait
 Short,
Tt or TT
tall, yellow, smooth, etc.
 Probability and
statistics
No one event has a greater chance of
occurring than another.
You cannot predict the precise outcome
of an individual event.
The more trials performed, the closer
the actual results to the expected
outcomes.
Punnett square review:
 What is independent
assortment?
Alleles
separate
independently
during the
formation of
gametes.
Independent Assortment
The two factor cross. Example: color
and shape of peas.
F1 cross to produce the F2 generation
Ex RRYY x rryy
Round yellow mated with wrinkled green
• Offspring would all be hybrid for both
traits (RrYy)
 The donation of one allele
from each pair is
independent of any other
pair. For example, if the
plant donates the yellow seed
allele it does not mean that it
will also donate the yellow
pod allele.
 Mendel’s Law of
Segregation
Mendel’s first law, the Law of Segregation, has three parts.
From his experiments, Mendel concluded that:
1. Plant traits are handed down through “hereditary
factors” in the sperm and egg.

2. Because offspring obtain hereditary factors from both

parents, each plant must contain two factors for every trait.

3. The factors in a pair segregate (separate) during the

formation of sex cells, and each sperm or egg receives
only one member of the pair.
 The dihybrid cross

Punnett square on board:

 Mendel’s death
Mendel published his paper on heredity
in 1866.
The scientific community saw little if any
importance in his work.
Mendel died in 1884 with no recognition
for his contributions to genetics.
 Some exceptions to
Mendel’s principles:
Some alleles are neither
dominant nor recessive.
Many traits are controlled by
more than one gene (polygenic
traits)
Incomplete dominance
A situation in which neither allele is
dominant.
When both alleles are present a “new”
phenotype appears that is a blend of
each allele.
Alleles will be represented by capital
letters only.
Japanese four-o-clock
flowers
Red flower plant genotype = RR
White flower plant genotype = WW
Pink flower plant genotype = RW
What happens when a
red flower is crossed
with a white flower?
According to
Mendel either
some white and
some red or all
offspring either
red or white.
All are pink
 Codominance
When two alleles both appear in the
phenotype.
Usually signified using superscripts.
example: color of hair coat in cattle.
crcr = red hairs
cwcw = white hairs
crcw = roan coat (mixture of both colors)
Roan cattle inheritance
 Multiple allele
inheritance
When two or more alleles contribute to
the phenotype.
Human blood types: A,B,O and AB
A and B are codominant to each other.
Both A and B are dominant over O.
 Human Blood types:
TYPE A
Allele = IA
Blood cells
have small
antigens on the
surface.
TYPE B
Allele = IB
Cells coated
with type B
antigens
TYPE AB
genotype = IAIB
Blood cells
contain both
types of antigens
Known as
universal recipient
TYPE O
Allele = i
No antigens on
the surface of
the blood cells
Known as
universal donor
6 different genotypes
IType
I A
A A

IAIB AB
Type
IBIB B
Type
I Bi
Type B
I Ai
Type A
ii
Type O
How common are the
different blood types?
 Sample Problem:

A man with type AB blood

marries a woman with type B
blood whose father has type O
blood. What are the chances
that they have a child with type
A blood? Type AB?
 Polygenic traits
Traits controlled by two or more
genes.
Examples:
 Human height,

eye and skin

color
Rediscovery of Mendel’s
work
Around the turn of the century (early
1900’s) many scientists “rediscovered”
Mendel’s work
1908 – Garrod
1902 – Sutton
1910 – Morgan
Thomas Hunt Morgan
1866-1945
Born in Kentucky,
professor of Biology
at Columbia U.
Worked with fruit
flies (drosophila)
Nobel Prize in
Medicine (1933)
 Why the Fruit Fly?
1. Can work with
large numbers of
flies easily
2. Produce many
offspring
3. Short reproductive
cycle
4. Only four pairs of
chromosomes
 Meiosis
A method of cell division similar to
mitosis.
2 main differences:
1. There are two divisions to produce 4
daughter cells
2. The cells produce contain ½ the
chromosomes as the original cell
Chromosome number
All cells of an
organism contain a
specific number of
chromosomes.
Most cells are
diploid (2n) meaning
they have two
copies of each
chromosome
 Events of meiosis I

During prophase I, each

chromosome pairs with its
homologous chromosome to
form a tetrad
 Crossing-over
Crossing-over: an
exchange of
genetic material
between sister
chromatids
Results in greater
variation
 Meiosis II
Neither cell replicates its chromosomes.
Each cell splits (similar to mitosis)
Produces four daughter cells.
Animation
Gametogenesis

Literally
means
“creation of
gametes”
Egg and
sperm
 2 types:
Spermatogeneis &
Oogenesis
 Net result:
Oogensis
Spermatogensis
4 mature ova
1 spermor egg.
Each egg
sperm
hashas
exactly
exactly
halfhalf
thethe
number
number
of chromosomes
of chromosomes
as the mother.
as the father.
 Gene Linkage
Are genes “linked” to each other on
chromosomes?
Morgan found that many genes are
linked together.
It was determined that chromosomes,
not genes, assort independently during
meiosis.
Gene Maps
First developed
by Sturtevant in
1911.
The farther apart
two genes are,
the more likely
they will be
separated in
meiosis.