Gregor Mendels Laws

Mendelian inheritance (or Mendelian genetics or Mendelism) is a set of primary tenets relating to the transmission of hereditary characteristics from parent organisms to their children. The laws of inheritance were derived by Gregor Mendel, an Austrian monk.

History
Between 1856 and 1863, he cultivated and tested some 28,000 pea plants. His experiments brought forth two generalizations which later became known as Mendel's Laws of Heredity or Mendelian inheritance. Although his results were published in 1865, it went largely un noticed, but it was rediscovered by three scientists in 1900.

Mendels experiments.
Mendel discovered that by crossing white flower and purple flower plants, the offspring was purple flowered, rather than being a mix of the two. He then conceived the idea of heredity units, which he called "factors", one which is a recessive characteristic and the other dominant. Mendel said that factors, later called genes, normally occur in pairs in ordinary body cells, yet segregate during the formation of sex cells.

Terminology
Allele: One of two or more forms a gene may take. Dominant: An allele whose expression overpowers the effect of a second form of the same gene. Gamete: A reproductive cell. Heterozygous: A condition in which two alleles for a given gene are different from each other. Homozygous: A condition in which two alleles for a given gene are the same. Recessive: An allele whose effects are concealed in offspring by the dominant allele in the pair.

Mendel's Law of Segregation

Mendel's law of segregation, also known as Mendel's First Law, essentially has four parts. 1. Alleles exist- They are alternate forms of the same gene- for eg. Gene which codes for colour of the pea pod or flowergene is same but can be either green or yellow.

Mendel's Law of Segregation

2. For each characteristic feature, an organism inherits two alleles, one from each parent, i.e. one from the father and one from the mother. In true breeding organisms- both alleles will be same-TT/tt and in hybrid, it will be Tt. 3. If the two alleles differ, then one, the dominant allele, is fully expressed in the organism's appearance; the other, the recessive allele, has no noticeable effect on the organism's appearance. In other words, the dominant allele is expressed in the phenotype of the organism;

Mendel's Law of Segregation

However this does not always hold true, today. There are several examples we know that disprove this "law", e.g. Mirabilis jalapa, the "Japanese wonder flower.This is called incomplete dominance. There is also codominance e.g. Human blood types where A and B are codominant and O is recessive.

Mendel's Law of Segregation

4. The two alleles for each characteristic segregate during gamete production. The two alleles of the organism are separated into different gametes, ensuring variation.

Mendel's Law of Segregation

The Law of Segregation states that the members of each pair of alleles separate when gametes are formed. A will receive one allele or the A gamete other.

Genetic diagram
A genetic diagram is done in order to find out the possibilities of a cross between two known parents. Mendels always started the crosses with pure bred parents for one character, called monohybrid. The diagram is also known as the Punnett square. In the following diagram, parents are one pure green (GG) and the other pure yellow (gg). The resulting offspring are Gg the F1 generation.

Second law of inheritance

An individual's physical appearance or phenotype is determined by its alleles. An individual possesses two alleles for each trait; one allele is given by the female parent and the other by the male parent. They are passed on when an individual matures and produces gametes, egg and sperm. When gametes form the paired alleles separate randomly so that each gamete receives a copy of one of the two alleles. The presence of an allele doesn't promise that the trait will be expressed in the individual that possesses it. In heterozygous individuals the only allele that in expressed is the dominant. The recessive allele is present but its expression is hidden.

Mendels Second law

The Law of Independent assortment states that two or more pairs of alleles segregate independently of one another during gamete formation.

Mendels Second law

The genetic diagram again begins with two pure bred parents, this time with two characters or dihybrid. They are pure green and round seeds (GGYY) and pure yellow and wrinkled seeds ( ggyy). The F1 generation is a hybrid of GgYy, which is crossed again to give the following results.