MENDELS LAWS OF

INHERITENCE
LSE-03: LECTURE -2
02-02-2015

BASIC GENETIC TERMINOLOGY

Gene: A genetic factor (region of DNA) that helps
determine a characteristic
Allele: One of two or more alternate forms of a gene
Locus: Specific place on a chromosome occupied by
an allele
Genotype: Set of alleles that an individual organism
possesses
Heterozygote: An individual organism possessing
two different alleles at a locus
Homozygote: An individual organism possessing two
of the same alleles at a locus
Phenotype (trait): The appearance or manifestation
of a character

MENDELS EXPERIMENTAL ORGANISM

THE GARDEN PEA

Mendel chose the garden pea, Pisum sativum, to

investigate the natural laws that govern plant
hybrids.
What advantages were provided by Mendels choice of the garden
pea in his experiments?

MENDEL STUDIED SEVEN CHARACTERS

THAT BRED TRUE

CROSSING PEA PLANTS

MONOHYBRID
CROSS

THE PRINCIPLE OF SEGREGATION OF

MENDELIAN FACTORS

WHAT MONOHYBRID CROSSES REVEAL

Mendels monohybrid crosses revealed the
principle
of segregation and the concept of
dominance.
The principle of segregation (Mendels first law) states
that each individual diploid organism possesses two
alleles for any particular characteristic. These two
alleles segregate (separate) when gametes are
formed, and one allele goes into each gamete.
The concept of dominance states that, when two
different alleles are present in a genotype, only the
trait encoded by one of themthe dominant allele
is observed in the phenotype.

THE TESTCROSS
A testcross is a cross of an individual of unknown genotype,
usually expressing the dominant phenotype, with a known
homozygous recessive individual to determine the genotype of
the unknown individual.

WHAT RESULTS ARE POSSIBLE FROM A

TWO-FACTOR CROSS?

Two hypotheses to explain how two different genes assort during

gamete formation

MENDELS ANALYSIS OF TWO-FACTOR

CROSSES
In this experiment, Mendel began with two types of truebreeding pea strains that were different with regard to two
characters. One strain produced round, yellow seeds (RRYY);
the other strain produced wrinkled, green seeds (rryy).

MENDELS ANALYSIS OF TWO-FACTOR

CROSSES

Mendels results from many two-factor experiments

rejected the hypothesis of linked assortment and,
instead, supported the hypothesis that different

MENDELS LAW OF INDEPENDENT ASSORTMENT

The Principle of Independent Assortment states that
the alleles of different genes segregate (assort)
independently of each other.

THE TRIHYBRID CROSS

The trihybrid cross demonstrates that Mendels
principles apply to inheritance of multiple traits.

INTERCROSS INVOLVING THREE

INDEPENDENTLY ASSORTING GENES

TESTCROSS INVOLVING THREE

INDEPENDENTLY ASSORTING GENES

SIMPLE MATHEMATICAL RULES USEFUL

IN WORKING GENETICS PROBLEMS

REVIEW QUESTIONS
Why was Mendels approach to the study of heredity so
successful?
In cucumbers, orange fruit color (R) is dominant over cream
fruit color (r). A cucumber plant homozygous for orange
fruits is crossed with a plant homozygous for cream fruits.
The F1 are intercrossed to produce the F2. Give the
genotypes and phenotypes of the parents, the F1 and the
In summer squash, white fruit color (W) is dominant over
F2.
yellow fruit color (w) and disk-shaped fruit (D) is dominant
over sphere-shaped fruit (d). If a squash plant truebreeding for white, disk-shaped fruit is crossed with a plant
true-breeding for yellow, sphere-shaped fruit, what will the
phenotypic and genotypic ratios be for the F1and
F2generation?