CONTRIBUTIONS OF

GREGOR JOHANN
MENDEL

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Who was this Mendel and what the heck is
he doing in a monastery?
• Born in 1822
• Joined a monastery in Brunn, Austria
• Trained himself to be a naturalist early in
life
• Sent to Vienna U. To study Science and
Maths
• Worked as a substitute science teacher
• Failed the qualifying exams to be a
regular high school teacher!
Gregor Mendel
(1822-1884)

Father of
genetics…

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 Mendel’s first published work:
"Versuche über Pflanzen-Hybriden“
or Experiments in Plant
Hybridization was a landmark in
clarity and insight!

Trained as a
mathematician and a
biologist, he figured out
the laws of inheritance…
mathematically!!
MENDEL’S PEA PLANT
EXPERIMENTS

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 WHY PEAS, Pisum sativum ?
Can be grown in a
small area
Produce lots of
offspring
Produce pure plants
when allowed to self-
pollinate several
generations
Can be artificially
cross-pollinated
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7 Site of
Gregor
Mendel’s
experimental
garden in the
Czech
Republic

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TERMINOLOGY
Alleles - two forms of a gene (dominant &
recessive)
Dominant - stronger of two genes
expressed in the hybrid; represented by a
capital letter (R)
Recessive - gene that shows up less often
in a cross; represented by a lowercase
letter (r)

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GENETIC TERMINOLOGY
Trait - any characteristic that can be
passed from parent to offspring
Heredity - passing of traits from
parent to offspring
Genetics - study of heredity

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 10

MORE TERMINOLOGY
Genotype - gene combination for a
trait (e.g. RR, Rr, rr)
Phenotype - the physical feature
resulting from a genotype (e.g. red,
white)

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 GENOTYPES
Homozygous genotype - gene
combination involving 2 dominant or 2
recessive genes (e.g. RR or rr); also
called pure
Heterozygous genotype - gene
combination of one dominant & one
recessive allele (e.g. Rr); also called
hybrid
 MENDEL’S EXPERIMENTAL
METHODS
•Mendel Hand-pollinated Flowers
Using A Paintbrush •

•He Could Snip The Stamens

To Prevent Self-pollination
•Covered Each Flower With A
Cloth Bag
•He Traced Traits Through The
Several Generations
 How Mendel Began
Mendel
produced
pure
strains by
allowing
the plants
to self-
pollinate
for several
generations
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Mendel’s hybridization experiments…
Monohybrid crosses:

Parental True-breeding True-breeding

x
Generation purple flower white flower

F1 generation All purple flowers (the hybrids)

Allowed F1
offspring to self-
fertilize
F2 generation 705 purple
224 white
MENDEL’S L AWS

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 RESULTS OF MONOHYBRID
CROSSES
• Inheritable factors or genes are responsible
for all heritable characteristics
• Phenotype is based on Genotype
• Each trait is based on two genes, one from
the mother and the other from the father
• True-breeding individuals are homozygous
( both alleles are the same)
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PARTICULATE INHERITANCE

Mendel stated that physical

traits are inherited as “particles”
Mendel did not know that the
“particles” were actually
Chromosomes & DNA
 Law of Dominance
In a cross of parents that are pure for
contrasting traits, only one form of the trait
will appear in the next generation.
All the offspring will be heterozygous and
express only the dominant trait.
RR x rr yields all Rr (round seeds)

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 LAW OF SEGREGATION
• During the formation of gametes (eggs or
sperm), the two alleles responsible for A
trait separate from each other.
• Alleles for a trait are then "recombined" at
fertilization, producing the genotype for the
traits of the offspring.
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APPLYING THE LAW OF SEGREGATION

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Law of Independent Assortment

• Alleles for different traits are distributed

to sex cells (& offspring) independently
of one another.
• This law can be illustrated using
dihybrid crosses.

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 DIHYBRID CROSS
• A breeding experiment that tracks the
inheritance of two traits.
• Mendel’s “Law of Independent Assortment”
• a. Each pair of alleles assort independently
during gamete formation.

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DIHYBRID CROSS

Round/Yellow: 9
Round/green: 3
wrinkled/Yellow: 3
wrinkled/green: 1
9:3:3:1

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26 Test Cross
A mating between an individual of unknown
genotype and a homozygous recessive individual.
Example: bbC__ x bbcc

 BB = brown eyes
 Bb = brown eyes
 bb = blue eyes bC b___

bc
 CC = curly hair
 Cc = curly hair
 cc = straight hair
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Test Cross
Possible results:

bC b___
C bC b___
c

bc bbCc bbCc or bc bbCc bbcc

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 Social Influence
 Mendel's pea plant experiments
revolutionized the discussion on genetics
After rediscovery of Mendelian
principles the Genetical science rapidly
developed.
Mendel was the first biologist to use
Mathematics – to explain his results
quantitatively.
Mendel predicted the concept of
‘genes’.
He established three Principles of
Inheritance.
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