The different traits of Garden Peas that Gregor

Mendel studied are shown below (Figure 2):

Lesso
n

1 Mendelian Genetics
Many of us wonder why we look similar to our parents, why
plants and animals produce their own kind. Some of your friends
would say that your ears and lips are the same as your mother but
your skin color and your height are the same as your father. Well,
traits really are inherited from our parents. How did this happen?
Gregor Mendel’s Experiment
In this module, you will understand how traits are passed
from one generation to the next. So, enjoy learning.
Gregor Mendel first produced pure-breeding plants through self-
pollination for many generations until all the offspring had the
same features as the parents. For example, when green seed peas
were self-pollinated, all the offspring produced were all green
Gregor Mendel and His Experiment on
seed peas. Using his pure-breeding plants, Gregor Mendel started
Garden Peas
cross-pollinating the peas with contrasting traits. The pure-
Gregor Mendel is an Austrian monk. In a monastery, he spent breeding peas were called parental or P1 generation and when
his time in investigating how individual traits were inherited. cross-pollinated, the resulting offspring were called first filial (F1)
Gregor Mendel used the garden peas (Pisum sativum) in his generation. The F1 generation was also called hybrids because it
experiments because it has several traits to be studied, easy to resulted from a cross between two pure-bred plants with different
grow, reproduce through self-pollination. Through his research on traits. For example, when the pure-breed round seed was
garden peas, a new branch of science was formed, it is called crossed-pollinated with pure-breed wrinkled seed, all the
Genetics. Gregor Mendel then paved the way for the study of offspring produced were all round seeds. A cross using one trait
Genetics.
Genetics is the study of heredity and the factors that affect the
transmission of genes to determine inherited characters from one
generation to the next. Heredity refers to the transfer of traits genes
from parents to offspring.
is referred as monohybrid cross. occurrence of the genotype and phenotype in a generation rather
than the ability to generate few offspring.
Mendelian Principles of Heredity
Gregor Mendel’s results of his experiment made him hypothesize
that there was a factor in the plants which controlled the
appearance of a trait which he called hereditary “factors”. He also
hypothesized that traits were regulated by a pair of “factors” now
Crossing the Hybrid Plants called alleles. With these findings, Gregor Mendel was able to
formulate the three principles of heredity.
After cross-breeding the pure-breed peas, Gregor Mendel was
determined to know what happened with the other lost traits. Gregor Mendel conceived the idea of heredity units, which he called
Gregor Mendel crossed the peas from F1 generation (hybrid) with hereditary "factors". Mendel found that there are alternative forms
each other and produced another type of offspring called the second of factors currently called genes that account for variations in
filial generation F2 (Table 2). There were two types of offspring inherited characteristics.
produced in the F2 generation, ¾ were round seeds and ¼ were 1. The Law of Dominance
wrinkled seeds (Figure4).
The Law of Dominance states that in every organism, there is a
Example: Cross of hybrids pair of factors or genes which control the appearance of a particular
trait. One of the pair of genes/alleles may hide or prevent the
appearance of the other. One allele is a dominant trait, while the
other is a recessive trait. The dominant traits hide or mask the
appearance of the recessive trait. The dominant trait is represented
by a big letter and a small letter for the recessive trait.

Example:
R for round seed (dominant trait), r for wrinkled seed (recessive
trait)
G for the green pod (dominant trait), g for the yellow pod (recessive
In the F2 generation, Mendel counted 5,474 round seeds and trait).
1,850 wrinkled seeds. The round seeds were about three times as
many as the wrinkled seeds. The ratio of round seeds to wrinkled Note that in a particular trait, the same letter will be used for
seeds was 2.96:1 or nearly 3:1. Moreover, in the F1 generation both the dominant and recessive traits. Since genes are in pairs,
the wrinkled seed type did not appear but reappeared in the one- the pure breeding green seed peas will be represented with letters
fourth of the F2 generation. He then concluded that the F1 GG and the pure breeding yellow seed peas gg. There are pairs of
generation received the capabilities to produce both phenotypes alleles which are identical and are called homozygous or
from their parents which are retained and passed on to their homozygote while the pair of alleles which are not identical are
future offspring. The produced ratios suggest the probability of called heterozygous or heterozygote.
 The Law of Independent Assortment states that the distribution
Each one of us has genes or alleles that are either or assortment of one pair of genes is independent of the distribution
homozygous or heterozygous. of the other pair. Traits are inherited independent of each other. The
Example: RR – homozygous genes for round seed law applies to genes that are found on separate chromosomes.
Rr - heterozygous genes round seed Thus, one pair of genes is not affected by the other pair.

2. The Law of Segregation Dihybrid Cross

The Law of Segregation states that all pairs of genes for all the Aside from Gregor Mendel’s study on inheritance of one pair of
traits of an organism segregate or separate from each other during genes or alleles, he also studied the inheritance of two pairs of genes
meiosis or gametes (sex cells) formation. Gregor Mendel argued that or alleles. A cross that involves two pairs of genes or alleles is called
for any trait, an organism must inherit one factor from the sperm dihybrid cross. An easy way to do the dihybrid cross is through the
and one factor from the egg. Thus, a new organism receives one use of Punnett square.
factor for each trait from each parent.

Example: RRYY X rryy

(Round, Yellow Seed) (Wrinkled, Green

Seed)

Punnett Square

Reginald C. Punnett is the one who devised the Punnett

square. This is a simple way to determine the possible combinations
of genes in a given cross. It can help you predict easily the outcome
of a given cross.

Directions: Fill in the blanks with the correct answer from the
terms given inside the box below. Write your answers on
a separate sheet of paper.

Alleles Dihybrid Dominance

Genes Genetics
Heredity
Homozygous Monohybrid
Genotype Segregation

Phenotype Punnett Square RecessiveTraits Independ

Assortment
3. The Law of Independent Assortment
1. The _______ is the study of heredity and 14. The Law of _______ states that the distribution
variation of organisms. of one pair of genes is independent of the
distribution of the other pair.
2. The study of the transfer of traits from the
parents to offspring is ________.
15. The _______ is a diagram that allows us to
3. Inheritance of _______ is controlled by genes. determine the possible combinations of genes
in a given cross.
4. The _______ are always in pair which
determine the maternal and paternal trait.
5. The _______ cross involves a cross using a
single factor or character trait.
6. The _______ cross involves a cross using two
character traits.
7. In Genetics, the two factors mentioned by
Mendel are called alleles. These alleles could
be dominant or _______.

8. The Law of _______ states that one member of

the pair of factors or genes may mask or hide
the appearance of the other genes.

9. The _______ can be represented by a pair of

letters called genotype.
10. The _______ refers to the genetic composition
for a trait of an organism.
11. The _______ is the observable trait or visible
feature of the organism
12. Similar alleles are called _______ while
dissimilar alleles are called heterozygous.
13. The Law of _______ states that during gamete
formation, the all pairs of genes for all traits
of an organism separate from each other.