A Geneis a section of a chromosome that

contains information for a particular characteristic

e.g. the gene for eye colour.
An Alleleis an alternative form of a gene e.g.
blue and brown are alleles for eye colour.
Homozygous genotypes (pure breeding) have
the same allele for a characteristic e.g. TT.
Heterozygous genotypes (hybrid) have
different allele e.g. Tt.
The Phenotype is the physical characteristics
of an organism.
The genotype of an organism is its genetic
makeup.
A dominant allele is the one that is expressed
in the phenotype. The recessive allele will only be
expressed if both the alleles are recessive.
A monohybrid cross is when we examine only
one characteristic, like Mendel did with his pea
plants.
Genetics is the study of hereditary.
Mendel chose garden peas because they were
easy to grow, produced new generations quickly and
had easily distinguishable characteristics. He was
able to strictly control the breeding patterns of his
peas.
Mendel examined the following seven
characteristics found in peas:

Flower colour, purple or white.

Flower position, axial or terminal.
Seed colour, yellow or green.
Seed shape, round or wrinkled.
Pod shape, inflated or constricted.
Pod colour, green or yellow.
Stem height, tall or short.
Mendel selectively bred plants for each
characteristic for 2 years to produce only
pure breeding offspring.
1.

Mendel first cross-fertilised two true breeding plants

for one characteristic for example tall plants were
crossed with short plants.

2.

The offspring produced were called the F1

generation.

3.

The F1 generation were then self-fertilised or crossfertilised to produce a second generation F2.
When two true-breeding plants were crossed
the dominant factor appeared in all the first
generation. In the second generation the recessive
factor appeared in a 3:1(dominant to recessive) ratio.
This is called the monohybrid ratio.
Mendels results were summed up in his law
of segregation:

An organisms characteristics are determined

by factors (genes) that occur in pairs.
In a sex cell (gamete) only one factor is
present.
During fertilisation, the factors pair up again.