Mendel and Punnet Squares

Mendel
 Father of genetics
 Parents were farmers who
invested in Mendel’s future by
sending him to a good school.
•became an Augustinian priest
•Work was largely ignored until
Early 20th century, when it was
re-discovered.
Mendel’s Experiments
 Chose to work with peas, because:
1. They were easy to cross (breed)
2. showed a variety of contrasting traits,
like purple versus white flowers, tall versus
short stems, round versus wrinkled seeds.
Mendel’s Experiments
Mendel’s Experiments
 Mendel bred a pure-bred (means if two
pure-bred individuals are bred together,
they would only produce offspring with the
same characteristics) with a plant of the
opposite trait. For example, a pea plant
with purple flowers to a plant with white
flowers.
 These two individuals were called the
parental (P) generation.
Mendel’s Experiments
 The offspring of the parental generation were
called the first filial (F1) generation.
- Mendel counted and recorded the numbers and
characteristics of these offspring.
 He then bred 2 individuals from the F1 together.
 The offspring of the F1 crossed with F1 were then
called the second filial (F2) generation.
- Mendel counted and recorded the numbers and
characteristics of these offspring.
Mendel’s Experiments
Mendel’s Results and Conclusions
 The F1 generation always showed only one trait (he later
called this the dominant trait), the other was ‘hidden.’
 The F1 generation must be carrying the ‘hidden’ trait from
the original parents - the white trait
 Some individuals in the F2 generation showed the hidden
trait, 1/4 of the F2 generation had it (he later called this
hidden trait the recessive trait).
 Each individual has two "factors" that determine what
external appearance the offspring will have. (We now call
these factors genes or alleles)
Mendel’s Laws
 1. The Principle of Dominance and
Recessiveness - one trait is masked or covered up
by another trait
 2. Principle of Segregation - the two factors
(alleles) for a trait separate during gamete formation
 3. Principle of Independent Assortment - factors
of a trait separate independently of one another
during gamete formation; another way to look at this
is, whether a flower is purple has nothing to do with
the length of the plants stems - each trait is
independently inherited.
Modern Genetics
 Mendel's factors are now called ALLELES. For every trait a
person have, two alleles determine how that trait is
expressed.
 We use letters to denote alleles, since every gene has two
alleles, all genes can be represented by a pair of letters.
 PP = purple, Pp = purple, pp = white
 Homozogyous: when the alleles are the same, the individual
is said to be homozygous, or pure breeding. Letters
designating a homozgyous individual could be capital or
lowercase, as long as they are the same. Ex. AA, bb, EE, dd
 Heterozygous: when the alleles are different, in this case the
DOMINANT allele is expressed. Ex. Pp, Aa
Modern Genetics
 Monohybrid cross = a cross involving one
pair of contrasting traits. Ex. Pp x Pp
 Punnet Square: used to determine the
PROBABILITY of having a certain type of
offspring given the alleles of the parents
 Genotype: letters used to denote alleles (BB,
Pp..etc)
 Phenotype: what an organism looks like
(brown, purple..)
Punnet Squares
 Used to predict the outcome of a cross.

 Sample Problem -
*In pea plants (which Gregor Mendel
studied), tall pea plants are dominant over
short pea plants. Using Punnett Squares, you
can predict the genotypes and phenotypes of
the offspring of a cross between a
homozygous (purebred) tall pea plant and a
homozygous (purebred) short pea plant.
How to solve, Step 1
 Designate letters which will represent the
genes/traits. Capital letters represent
dominant traits, and lowercase letters
represent recessive traits.

T = tall t = short
How to solve, Step 2
 Writedown the genotypes (genes) of each
parent. These are often given to you or
are possible to determine.

 TT X tt
 (tall) (short) - both homozygous (same) or
purebred
How to solve, Step 3
 Draw a Punnett square - 4 small squares
in the shape of a window. Write the
possible gene(s) of one parent across the
top and the gene(s) of the other parent
along the side of the Punnett square.
How to solve, Step 4
 Fillin each box of the Punnett square by
transferring the letter above and in front of each
box into each appropriate box. As a general rule,
the capital letter goes first and a lowercase letter
follows.
T T

Tt Tt
t

Tt Tt
t
How to solve, Step 5
 List the possible genotypes and phenotypes
of the offspring for this cross.
 The letters inside the boxes indicate probable
genotypes (genetic makeup) of offspring
resulting from the cross of these particular
parents. There are 4 boxes, and the
genotypic results can be written either as
fractions or percents. In this case, all 4 boxes
out of the 4 are showing the Tt genotype.
Therefore, each of the offspring has a 4/4 or
100% chance of showing the Tt genotype.
Punnet Squares
 What are the possible genotype(s) of a tall
plant?
 What are the possible genotype(s) of a short
plant?
 What would be the phenotype of TT?
 What would be the phenotype of tt?
 Why is the phenotype of Tt tall and not
medium/average?