Mendel’s Experiment: Mendel’s Law of Segregation, and Peas plant

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May 8, 2023

In his famous Mendel's experiment, Austrian monk Gregor Mendel conducted research in the mid-19th century on pea plants to understand the patterns of inheritance of physical traits. He is widely known as the father of genetics due to his discoveries, which help to make the laws of inheritance and is still used today in the study of genetics.

Why did Mendel selected the Pea plant for his experiment?

Mendel's experiment on Pea's Plant

Mendel selected pea plants for his experiments because they have several characteristics that made them ideal for genetic studies. Pea plants are easily cultivated and have a short lifespan, which allowed Mendel to conduct a number of experiments in a short period of time. Pea plants have a variety of visible traits, such as seed color, flower color, pod shape, and height, which can be easily distinguished and quantified. Many of these traits are determined by a single gene, and the inheritance of these genes is relatively simple, which makes it easier to study and analyze the patterns of inheritance. Pea plants can self-fertilize, which allowed Mendel to cross plants with different traits and obtain predictable results.

Mendel conducted his experiments on pea plants over several years, carefully crossbreeding plants with different observable traits such as seed color, flower color, pod shape, and height. He observed the patterns of inheritance of these traits in the offspring of the crosses and recorded his findings in a systematic manner. By conducting these experiments, Mendel was able to formulate the laws of inheritance, which helped to explain how traits are passed down from generation to generation. Despite the fact that Mendel's work was largely ignored during his lifetime, it laid the foundation for modern genetics and it became one of the most important scientific discoveries in history.

Mendel’s Experiment

Mendel's experiments led him to draw several important conclusions about the patterns of inheritance in pea plants. He found that the inheritance of physical traits was determined by discrete units of inheritance, which he called "factors" and are now known as genes. Mendel also discovered that each individual inherits two copies of each gene, one from each parent. He observed that in some cases, one gene variant, or allele, would be dominant over another, while in other cases, the two alleles would be expressed equally. These findings are summarized in the famous Punnett square, by which Mendel used to predict the probability of particular traits appearing in the offspring of a cross.

Here's an example of a Punnett square based on one of Mendel's experiments:


	T	t
T	TT	Tt
t	Tt	tt

In this example, Mendel studied the inheritance of a single trait, specifically the trait of pea plant height. He observed that some plants were tall and some were short, and that this trait seemed to be determined by a single gene with two alleles: "T" for tall and "t" for short. He performed a cross between two pea plants, one that was tall and dominant (TT) and one that was short and recessive (tt).

Watch our youtube video on Mendel's Experiment.

Types of Cross

Monohybrid cross and dihybrid cross are two types of genetic crosses that Mendel used in his experiments.A monohybrid cross involves the study of one trait, while a dihybrid cross involves the study of two traits .

In a monohybrid cross, two individuals with different variations of a single trait are crossed. For example, Mendel crossed pea plants with round seeds and pea plants with wrinkled seeds to study the inheritance of seed shape.

In a dihybrid cross, two individuals with different variations of two traits are crossed. For example, Mendel crossed pea plants with yellow, round seeds and pea plants with green, wrinkled seeds to study the inheritance of seed color and shape simultaneously.

By carefully observing the patterns of inheritance in these crosses, Mendel was able to use his laws of inheritance and make discoveries in the field of genetics.

Mendel’s law of Inheritance

Mendel's laws of inheritance are three fundamental principles that explain how traits are passed down from generation to generation.

Law of Segregation: Mendel's first law of inheritance, the law of segregation, states that every individual has two copies of each gene, and these copies segregate during gamete formation. Therefore, each gamete receives only one copy of each gene.

Law of Independent Assortment: Mendel's second law of inheritance, the law of independent assortment, states that the alleles of different genes assort independently during gamete formation. Therefore, the inheritance of one trait is not dependent on the inheritance of another.

Dominant and Recessive Traits: Mendel's experiments also revealed the concepts of dominant and recessive traits. Dominant traits are expressed in individuals when only one copy of the gene is present, while recessive traits are only expressed when two copies of the gene are present.

Most Asked Questions

How did Mendel's experiment disprove the idea that "we are simply a blend of our parents traits"?

Gregor Mendel experimented with two different peas plant that are different in colour with eachother, mendel found out that the offspring was one colour instead of two colours or mixture of two colours.

He also found out that, the female parent trait is dominant, while the male parent trait is recessive while conducting experiments with hundreds of baby plants.

Also read:

Parts of Microscope with functions and labeled microscopes diagram

Refrences

byjus.com,

opentextbc.ca,

wikipedia.com

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Why did Mendel selected the Pea plant for his experiment?

Mendel’s Experiment

Types of Cross

Mendel’s law of Inheritance

Most Asked Questions

Refrences

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