Gregor Johann Mendel

Father of Genetics
St Thomas's Abbey
Garden Pea Plant
(Pisum satovum)
Mendel experimented with
thousands of pea plants to
understand the process of
heredity – the passing down of
traits through generations.
Genetics is the scientific study of
heredity.
 Gregor Mendel
 While working in his garden, Mendel
wondered why different pea plants grew
tall, while others were short.
 Some had green seeds, others yellow.
 He called all these characteristics traits.
 Why did Mendel used Pea Plants
1st Reason: Garden peas easily grow and produce large
numbers of offspring.

2nd Reason: Their male and female reproductive structures

are located in the same flower and they SELF FERTILIZE.

3rd Reason: They have contrasting characteristics and they

Mature quickly.
 The 3 Steps of Mendel’s
Experiment
1st Step: Production of the pure breeding strains
of pea plants.

2nd Step: The crossing of the different varieties of

pure breeding strains.

3rd Step: The crossing of the F1 Generation.

1st Step: Production of the pure breeding
strains of pea plants.
The parental generation (Usually the
first one in a genetic cross)
 2nd Step: The crossing of the
different varieties of pure breeding
strains.
F1 generation: The
first generation of
offspring from P
generation (means
first filial: Latin for
"son")

100% PURPLE
Or 4 PURPLE or
4:0 PURPLE PLANT
3rd Step: The crossing of the F1
Generation.

F2 generation: The second generation of

offspring from P generation

75% PURPLE; 25% white

3 PURPLE; 1 white
3:1 PURPLE: white
 Mendel’ Pea Plants
Mendel based his laws on his studies of garden pea
plants. Mendel was able to observe differences in
multiple traits over many generations because pea
Pod color
plants reproduce rapidly, and have many visible
traits such as:
Seed Color
Plant Height
Green Yellow

Green Yellow Seed Shape

Tall Short Pod Shape

Wrinkled Round

Smooth Pinched
Mendel’s Experiments
 When the egg and pollen (sperm) cells join, this is called
fertilization.
 Pea plants are usually self-pollinating – meaning they can
pollinate themselves, even when they are alone.
 Mendel developed a method to cross-pollinate – meaning
he moved the pollen from one plant to the pistil of
another. This is called “cross pollination” or “crossed” for
short.
In Mendel’s experiments, the F1 generation are also
called hybrids because they resulted from a cross
between two pure-breeding plants with contrasting
traits (for example, pea plants with round seeds
crossed with pea plants with wrinkled seeds).
• Based on the results of his experiments,
Mendel hypothesized that there was a
factor in the plants which controlled the
appearance of a trait. These factors are
what we call genes today.
 MENDELIAN
PRINCIPLES OF
GENETICS
 The Law of Complete
Dominance
 Principle of Allelelism
 The Law of Segregation and
Recombination
The Law of Complete Dominance
 When a pure breeding parent carrying a “Stronger”
characteristics is crossed or bred with another pure
breeding parent carrying a “weaker” characteristic,
their offspring will carry or manifest the “Stronger”
characteristic possessed by one parent.

 The non appearance of the recessive characteristics

does not mean it was totally lost. It was just hidden
and masked by the dominant purple color.
 Mendel noted that for each trait he
studied, there is one trait that dominates
the other. Based on the results for the
F1 generation, the trait for purple
colored flower is the DOMINANT
TRAIT. The trait of white colored
flower, which did not appear in the F1
generation, is called the recessive trait.
Principle of Allelelism
 The characteristics carried by any organism are
controlled by “genes”
 A pair of gene is called “alleles”
 Capital or upper case letters represent the
dominant alleles and lower case letters represent
recessive alleles.
 If the pair of allele is the same (PP or pp), it is a
homozygous pair.
 If the pair of allele is unlike (Pp), it is a
heterozygous pair.
PURPLE COLORED FLOWER white colored flower

PP pp

P P p p
 Dominant trait: Signified by capital letter-
E.g. (P). If the traits you are using are dominant,
this trait will "overpower" the recessive trait and
will be expressed. E.g. Pp

 Recessive trait: Signified by small case letter-

e.g. (p). An organism with a recessive allele for a
particular form of a trait will have that form only
when the dominant allele for the trait is not
present.
E.g. (pp)
 Genotype: The letters that make
up the individual. E.g. PP or Pp

 Phenotype: The physical

characteristics of the particular
trait. E.g. PURPLE or white.
 Homozygous pair: Has same letters.
E.g. PP or pp (same alleles for trait)

 Heterozygous pair: Has different

letters. E.g. Pp (different alleles for
trait)
 Law of Segregation and Recombination
 During gamete formation (gametogenesis), the pair of genes randomly
segregates.
 The law of segregation states that when any individual produces
gametes (sperm or egg cells), the copies of a gene separate so that each
gamete receives only one copy.
 It is only during the process of fertilization that genes/alleles
recombine.
 As a result, new gene combinations are produced.
 Monohybrid Cross: Also known as a Single-
Factor Cross. Only one trait is used in the
genetic cross.
E.g. P=PURPLE, p=white. Ex: Pp x Pp

 Dihybrid Cross: Also known as a Two-factor

Cross. Two trait are used in the genetic cross.
E.g. T=Tall, t=short & B=Black fur, b=white
fur. Example TtBb x TTBB
PUNNETT SQUARE- helps us to
predict the outcome of a given cross. It allows us
to determine the possible combinations of genes
in a cross.

P P
PARENT
S’
GAMETE
S