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Mendel's Principles of Genetics Explained

This document summarizes the work and discoveries of Gregor Mendel, the father of genetics. It discusses that Mendel studied inheritance through experiments with pea plants over many years. Through this work, he discovered his principles of inheritance, including that factors (genes) are inherited in pairs and segregate independently during gamete formation. Mendel's principles established the foundation of classical genetics and predicted the concept of genes and inheritance patterns that are still used today.

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Benedict Ocampo
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22 views8 pages

Mendel's Principles of Genetics Explained

This document summarizes the work and discoveries of Gregor Mendel, the father of genetics. It discusses that Mendel studied inheritance through experiments with pea plants over many years. Through this work, he discovered his principles of inheritance, including that factors (genes) are inherited in pairs and segregate independently during gamete formation. Mendel's principles established the foundation of classical genetics and predicted the concept of genes and inheritance patterns that are still used today.

Uploaded by

Benedict Ocampo
Copyright
© All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

 GENETICS – branch of biology

that deals with heredity and


variation of organisms.
 Chromosomes carry the
hereditary information (genes)
 Arrangement of nucleotides in DNA
 DNA → RNA → Proteins
 Chromosomes (and genes) occur
in pairs
Homologous Chromosomes
 New combinations of genes
occur in sexual reproduction
oFertilization from two parents
 Austrian Monk, born in what is now
Czech Republic in 1822
 Son of peasant farmer, studied
Theology and was ordained
priest Order St. Augustine.
 Went to the university of Vienna,
where he
studied botany and learned the
Scientific Method
 Worked with pure lines of peas for
eight years
 Prior to Mendel, heredity was
regarded as a "blending"
process and the offspring were
essentially a "dilution"of the different
parental characteristics.
 In 1866 he published
Experiments in Plant
Hybridization, (Versuche über
Pflanzen-Hybriden) in which he
established his three Principles of
Inheritance
He tried to repeat his work
in another plant, but didn’t
work because the plant
reproduced asexually! If…
Work was largely ignored for
34 years, until 1900, when
3 independent botanists
rediscovered Mendel’s work.
Mendel was the first biologist to
use Mathematics – to explain his
results quantitatively.
Mendel predicted
The concept of genes
That genes occur in pairs
That one gene of each pair is
present in the gametes
 Punnett Square

 A useful tool to do genetic crosses


 For a monohybrid cross, you need a
square divided by four….
 Looks like
a window
pane…
We use the
Punnett square
to predict the
genotypes and phenotypes of
the offspring.
STEPS:
1. determine the genotypes of the parent
organisms
2. write down your "cross" (mating)
3. draw a p-square
4. "split" the letters of the genotype for each
parent & put them "outside" the p-square
5. determine the possible genotypes of the
offspring by filling in the p-square
6. summarize results (genotypes & phenotypes
of offspring)

 Key to the Punnett Square:


 Determine the gametes of each
parent…
 How? By “splitting” the
genotypes of each parent:
 MENDEL’S PRINCIPLES

1. Principle of Dominance:


One allele masked another, one
allele was dominant over the other
in the F generation.
1

 2. Principle of Segregation:
When gametes are formed, the
pairs of hereditary factors (genes)
become separated, so that each sex
cell (egg/sperm) receives only one
kind of gene.
HUMAN CASE: CF

 Mendel’s Principles of Heredity


apply universally to all
organisms.
 Cystic Fibrosis: a lethal genetic
disease affecting Caucasians.
 Caused by mutant recessive gene
carried by 1 in 20 people of
European descent (12M)
One in 400 Caucasian couples

will be both carriers of CF – 1 in


4 children will have it.
CF disease affects transport

in tissues – mucus is accumulated


in lungs, causing infections.
3. Principle of Independent
Assortment:
“Members of one gene pair
segregate independently from other
gene pairs during gamete formation”
Genes get shuffled – these many
combinations are one of the
advantages of sexual reproduction
When you have an individual with an
unknown genotype, you do a test
cross.
Test cross: Cross with a homozygous
recessive individual.

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