Mendelism

Mendel’s Laws of Inheritance

Inheritance can be defined as the process of how a child receives genetic information from the parent. The
whole process of heredity is dependent upon inheritance and it is the reason that the offsprings are similar
to the parents. This simply means that due to inheritance, the members of the same family possess similar
characteristics.

It was only during the mid 19th century that people started to understand inheritance in a proper way. This
understanding of inheritance was made possible by a scientist named Gregor Mendel (1822-1884):Father
of Genetics, who formulated certain laws to understand inheritance known as Mendel’s laws of
inheritance.

Gregor Mendel, through his work on pea plants, discovered the fundamental laws of inheritance. He
deduced that genes come in pairs and are inherited as distinct units, one from each parent. Mendel tracked
the segregation of parental genes and their appearance in the offspring as dominant or recessive traits. He
recognized the mathematical patterns of inheritance from one generation to the next. Mendel's Laws of
Heredity/Inheritance are usually stated as: 1) The Law of Segregation, 2) The Law of Independent
Assortment, 3) The Law of Dominance. https://byjus.com/biology/mendel-laws-of-inheritance/
● The genetic makeup of the plant is known as the genotype. On the contrary, the
physical appearance of the plant is known as phenotype
● The genes are transferred from parents to the offsprings in pairs known as allele.
● During gametogenesis when the chromosomes are halved, there is a 50% chance of
one of the two alleles to fuse with the other parent.
● When the alleles are the same, they are known as homozygous alleles and when the
alleles are different, they are known as heterozygous alleles.
 Production of True breeding plant

Between 1856-1863, Mendel conducted the hybridization experiments on the garden peas.
During that period, he chose seven distinct characteristics of the peas and conducted some
cross-pollination/ artificial pollination on the pea lines that showed stable trait inheritance and
underwent continuous self-pollination. Such pea lines are called true-breeding pea lines.
Mendel began his studies by growing plants that were true-breeding for a particular trait. A
true-breeding plant will always produce offspring with that trait when they self-pollinate. For
example, a true-breeding plant with yellow seeds will always have offspring that have yellow
seeds. To obtain these plants, Mendel allowed plants with just one trait, such as purple flowers
or white flowers, to self-pollinate for many generations. He allowed this to continue until he
was sure the offspring from those plants always had only just the one trait, in this case, either
purple flowers or white flowers.
Why was Pea Plant Selected for Mendel’s Experiments?
He selected a pea plant for his experiments:

● The pea plant can be easily grown and maintained.

● They are naturally self-pollinating but can also be cross-pollinated.
● It is an annual plant, therefore, many generations can be studied within a short period of time.
● It has several contrasting characters.

Mendel conducted 2 main experiments to determine the laws of inheritance. These

experiments were:

● Monohybrid Cross Experiment

● Dihybrid Cross Experiment

While experimenting, Mendel found that certain factors were always being transferred down to the
offspring in a stable way. Those factors are now called genes i.e. genes can be called the units of
inheritance.
https://courses.lumenlearning.com/wm-biology1/chapter/reading-mendels-experiments-and-heredity-2/#:~:text=Today%2C%20the%20postulates%20put%20forth,point%20for
%20thinking%20about%20inheritance.

Mendel’s First Experiment (Monohybrid Cross)

In the first experiment, Mendel cross-pollinated two true-breeding plants of contrasting traits, such as purple
and white flowered plants. The true-breeding parent plants are referred to as the P generation (parental
generation). The hybrid offspring of the P generation are called the F1 generation (first filial generation). The
hybrid offspring of the F1 generation are called the F2 generation (second filial generation).

Monohybrid Crosses
Mendel first worked with plants that differed in a single characteristic, such as flower color. A hybridization is
a cross between two individuals that have different traits. A hybridization in which only one characteristic is
examined is called a monohybrid cross. The offspring of such a cross are called monohybrids. Mendel noted
that hybridizing true-breeding (P generation) plants gave rise to an F1 generation that showed only one trait
of a characteristic. For example, a true-breeding purple-flowering plant crossed with a true-breeding white-
flowering plant always gave rise to purple-flowered hybrid plants. There were no white-flowered hybrids.
Mendel wanted to know what happened to the white-flowers. If indeed a "heritable factor" for white-flower
had disappeared, all future offspring of the hybrids would be purple-flowered - none would be white. To test
this idea, Mendel let the F1 generation plants self-pollinate and then planted the resulting seeds.
Mendel’s Results
The F2 generation plants that grew included white-flowered plants. Mendel noted the ratio of white flowered plants
to purple-flowered plants was about 3:1. That is, for every three purple-flowered plants, there was one white
flowered plant. Figure below shows Mendel’s results for the characteristic of flower color.
Mendel carried out identical studies over three generations, (P, F1, and F2), for the other six characteristics
and found in each case that one trait “disappeared” in the F1 generation, only to reappear in the F2
generation. Mendel studied a large number of plants, as shown in Table below. His use of statistics to
demonstrate the repeated 3:1 ration of traits. Because of the repeatable nature of his findings, Mendel was
confident that the ratios of different traits in the F2 generation were representative. As shown in the table,
Mendel called the trait that appeared in the F2 75% of the time the dominant trait, and the trait that
reappeared in the F2 the recessive trait.
Results of F1 Generation Crosses for Seven Characteristics

F2 Generation
Characteristic Dominant Trait Recessive Trait Ratio
Dominant:Recessive
For each of the seven
Flower Color purple white 705:224 3.15:1 characteristics Mendel
Flower Position
axial terminal 651:207 3.14:1
studied, he observed a
on stem similar ratio in the
Stem Length tall short 787:277 2.84:1 inheritance of dominant
Pod Shape inflated constricted 882:299 2.95:1 to recessive traits (3:1)
Pod Color green yellow 428:152 2.82:1 in the F2 generation.
wrinkled or
Seed Shape round 5474:1850 2.96:1
angular
Seed Color yellow green 6022:2001 3.01:1
For each of the seven characteristics Mendel studied in his monohybrid cross experiments, he
observed a similar ratio in the inheritance of dominant to recessive traits (3:1) in the F 2 generation.
From the monohybrid cross experiments, he formulated the laws of Segregation And
Dominance.

Mendel stated that each individual has two alleles for each trait, one from each parent. Thus, he
formed the “first rule”, the Law of Segregation, which states individuals possess two alleles and a
parent passes only one allele to his/her offspring. One allele is given by the female parent and the
other is given by the male parent.

Law of Dominance states that dominant alleles always mask the recessive alleles. In heterozygous
condition always dominant allele is expressed in F1 generation. The characters that appear in an F1
generation are called as dominant alleles and which are not expressed are recessive. Dominant alleles
are expressed exclusively in a heterozygote, while recessive traits are expressed only if the organism
is homozygous for the recessive allele.
Mendel's first law states that a single trait can exist in different forms or alleles.
 Mendel’s Second Experiment (Dihybrid Cross)
In a dihybrid cross experiment, Mendel considered two traits, each having two alleles. He crossed
wrinkled-green pea seed and round-yellow pea seed and observed that all the first generation
progeny (F1 progeny) were round-yellow pea seeds. This meant that dominant traits were the round
shape and yellow color.

He then self-pollinated the F1 progeny and obtained 4 different traits wrinkled-yellow, round-yellow,
wrinkled-green and round-green pea seeds in the F2 progeny (9:3:3:1 ratio). Mendel found that
when peas with more than one trait were crossed, all combinations of the trait were seen in the
2nd progeny and the traits were present in a 9:3:3:1 ratio. After conducting for other traits, the
results were found to be similar. From this experiment, Mendel formulated his second law of
inheritance i.e law of Independent Assortment. Mendel's second law states that the alleles of two
different genes does not depend upon each other but instead they are independently sorted into
gametes.
Dihybrid Crosses
 Conclusions from Mendel’s Experiments
Mendel’s laws of inheritance:
The two experiments lead to the formulation of Mendel’s laws known as laws of inheritance which are:
1. Law of Dominance
2. Law of Segregation
3. Law of Independent Assortment

1. Law of Dominance: An organism with alternate forms of a gene will express the form that is dominant.

This is also called Mendel’s first law of inheritance. According to the law of dominance, hybrid offsprings will only inherit the
dominant trait in the phenotype. The alleles that are suppressed are called as the recessive traits while the alleles that determine the
trait are known as the dormant traits.

2. Law of Segregation
Each inherited trait is defined by a gene pair. Parental genes are randomly separated to the sex cells so that sex cells contain only
one gene of the pair. Offspring therefore inherit one genetic allele from each parent when sex cells unite in fertilization. So t he law
of segregation states that allele (alternative form of the gene) pairs segregate during the formation of gamete and re-unite randomly
during fertilization. This is also known as Mendel’s third law of inheritance.

3. Law of Independent Assortment

Also known as Mendel’s second law of inheritance, the law of independent assortment states that genes for different traits are
segregates separately from one another during gamete formation so that the inheritance of one trait is not dependent on the
inheritance of another. As the individual heredity factors assort independently, different traits get equal opportunity to occur
together.
 Key Points on Mendel’s Laws

● The law of inheritance was proposed by Gregor Mendel after conducting experiments
on pea plants for seven years.
● The Mendel’s laws of inheritance include law of dominance, law of segregation and
law of independent assortment.
● The law of segregation states that every individual possesses two alleles and only one
allele is passed on to the offspring.
● The law of independent assortment states that the inheritance of one pair of genes is
independent of inheritance of another pair.
 Allele: An allele is a variant form of a gene/Different forms of the same gene for a trait and
occupy the same relative position on a pair of same homologous chromosomes. Some genes
have a variety of different forms, which are located at the same position, or genetic locus, on a
chromosome. Humans are called diploid organisms because they have two alleles at each genetic
locus, with one allele inherited from each parent.
 If the two alleles are identical, the individual is called homozygous for the trait; if the two
alleles are different, the individual is called heterozygous.
 Law of Dominance states that dominant alleles always mask the recessive alleles. In
heterozygous condition always dominant allele is expressed in F1 generation. The characters
that appear in an F1 generation are called as dominant alleles and which are not expressed are
recessive.
 Mendel’s Law of Segregation states individuals possess two alleles and a parent passes only one
allele to his/her offspring.