Jens Martensson

Mendelian
Genetics
Important Genetic Questions in
Early 1800’s
• What traits are inherited?

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• How are traits inherited?
• What is the role of chance in heredity?

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Gregor Mendel: The Monk in the Garden

• Johann Gregor Mendel

• Monk

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• Founder of Genetics
• ‘Father of Genetics’
• Chose garden peas as his model
system to study heredity

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Gregor Mendel: The Monk in the
Garden • Mendel studied the inheritance of seven different features in peas

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Mendel’s model system: The pea
plant
•Pisum sativum
Characteristics of the garden
peas:

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• They have rapid life cycle
• They can produce lots of seeds
• They can self-fertilize
• Mendel took advantage of this
property to produce true-
breeding pea lines: he self-
fertilized and selected peas for
many generations until he got
lines that consistently made
offspring identical to the parent 5

(e.g., always short).

• Pea plants are also easy to cross, or mate in a controlled way.

• This is done by transferring pollen from the anthers (male parts) of a pea plant
of one variety to the carpel (female part) of a mature pea plant of a different
variety.

• To prevent the receiving plant from self-fertilizing, Mendel painstakingly

removed all of the immature anthers from the plant’s flowers before the cross.

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• Mendel first established pea lines with two different
forms of a feature, such as tall vs. short height.

• He grew these lines for generations until they were

pure-breeding (always produced offspring identical to

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the parent), then bred them to each other and observed
how the traits were inherited.

• In addition to recording how the plants in each generation

looked, Mendel counted the exact number of plants that
showed each trait.

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• Strikingly, he found very similar patterns of
inheritance for all seven features he studied

•One form of a feature, such as tall, always concealed the

other form, such as short, in the first generation after the
cross. Mendel called the visible form the dominant
trait and the hidden form the recessive trait.

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•In the second generation, after plants were allowed to
self-fertilize (pollinate themselves), the hidden form of the
trait reappeared in a minority of the plants. Specifically,
there were always about 333 plants that showed the
dominant trait (e.g., tall) for every 111 plant that showed
the recessive trait (e.g., short), making a 
3:1 ratio

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• In 1865, Mendel presented the results of his experiments with nearly 30,000 pea
plants to the local Natural History Society.

• Based on the patterns he observed, the counting data he collected, and a

mathematical analysis of his results, Mendel proposed the a model of inheritance
in which:

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•Characteristics such as flower color, plant height, and seed shape were controlled by
pairs of heritable factors that came in different versions (either D or R)
•One version of a factor (the dominant form) could mask the presence of another
version (the recessive form).  Law of Dominance
•The two paired factors separated during gamete production, such that each gamete
(sperm or egg) randomly received just one factor.  Law of Segregation
•The factors controlling different characteristics were inherited independently of one
another.  Law of Independent Assortment 9
In 1868, Mendel became abbot of his monastery
and largely set aside his scientific pursuits in
favor of his pastoral duties. He was not
recognized for his extraordinary scientific
contributions during his lifetime.

In the mid-1800s, when Mendel was doing his

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experiments, most biologists subscribed to the
idea of blending inheritance.

 involved the permanent blending of parents'

characteristics in their offspring (producing
offspring with an intermediate form of a
characteristic)
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Mendel’s Model of Inheritance
• Parents pass along “heritable factors," which we now call genes, that
determine the traits of the offspring
• Each gene has two variations (or allele)

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• Dominant allele (the one that masks the recessive allele)
• Recessive allele (the one that is masked/hidden by the dominant allele)

Ex:
• Gene (seed color)
• dominant allele (Y)
• recessive allele (y)

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Mendel’s Model of Inheritance
• Genotypes
• Set of alleles carried by an organism
• Types:

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- Homozygous  have two copies of the same allele (ex. YY or yy)
- Heterozygous  have different copies of allele (ex. Yy)
• It determines the organism’s phenotype or physical appearance

• Genotype and Phenotype association (Law of Dominance)

• Homozygous Dominant  YY  express the dominant trait
• Heterozygous  Yy  express the dominant trait
• Homozygous recessive  yy  express the recessive trait
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Law of Segregation
• Only one of the two gene copies
present in an organism is distributed
to each gamete (egg or sperm cell) that
it makes, and the allocation of the gene

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copies is random

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Law of Independent Assortment
• Mendel's law of independent assortment states that the alleles of
two (or more) different genes get sorted into gametes independently
of one another.

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• In other words, the allele a gamete receives for one gene does not
influence the allele received for another gene.

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Punnett Square
• A convenient method for calculating the expected genotype and
phenotype ratios from a cross
• It was invented by Reginald Punnett.

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Monohybrid Cross
Monohybrid cross refers to the genetic cross which
involves mating of two individuals that differ in only
one or single trait

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Problem 1:

Many farmers prefer cattle without horns because it is safer for their herds.
The allele for no horns (N) is dominant to the allele for the presence of horns
(n).

A farmer mates a male with horns to a heterozygous female without horns.

What is the chance that the offspring will have horns?
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Monohybrid Cross
• Problem 2

• In mussels, brown coloring (B) is dominant, and blue coloring (b) is

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recessive.

• A homozygous brown mussel crosses with a blue mussel.

• What percentage of offspring are expected to be blue?

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Monohybrid Cross
Problem 3:

In cats, the allele for short hair (H) is dominant to the allele for long

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hair (h).

A heterozygous short-hair cat is crossed with a long-hair cat.

What percentage of the offspring is expected to be heterozygous

for hair length?

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Monohybrid Cross
Problem 4:

In watermelons, solid green rind color (G) is dominant to stripes (g).

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A farmer crosses two watermelon plants that are heterozygous for
rind color.

What are the odds that the offspring will have solid green rinds?

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Dihybrid Cross
Dihybrid cross refers to the genetic cross which
involves mating of two individuals that differ in two
traits

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• In guinea pigs, black hair (B) is dominant to brown hair (b) and
short hair (H) is dominant to long hair (h).

• A black, long-haired guinea pig (Bbhh) is crossed with a

brown, short-haired guinea pig (bbHh).

• What percentage of the offspring will be black with long hair?

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Dihybrid Cross
In rabbits, white fur (W) is dominant to black (w), and long ears (E)
are dominant to short ears (e).

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A breeder mates two rabbits that are heterozygous (WwEe) for
both traits.

What is the chance that the offspring will be black with long ears?

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Dihybrid Cross
In tomatoes, tall vines (T) are dominant to dwarf vines (t), and red fruit (R)
is dominant to yellow fruit (r).

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A farmer mates a homozygous tall, red tomato plant (TTRR) with a
heterozygous tall, red tomato plant (TtRr).

What is the percent chance that the offspring will be dwarf plants with
yellow fruit?

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Dihybrid Cross
In tomatoes, tall vines (T) are dominant to dwarf vines (t), and red fruit (R)
is dominant to yellow fruit (r).

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A farmer mates a homozygous tall, red tomato plant (TTRR) with a
heterozygous tall, red tomato plant (TtRr).

What is the percent chance that the offspring will be dwarf plants with
yellow fruit?

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Dihybrid Cross
In a flowering plant, tall (T) is dominant to short (t), and blue flowers
(B) is dominant to white flowers (b).

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A tall plant with white flowers (Ttbb) is crossed with a short plant
with blue flowers (ttBb).

What is the chance that the offspring will be short with white
flowers?

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