Gabrielle Tanson Heredity -Genetics: the branch of biology which studies the ways in which hereditary information is passed

from parent to offspring -Gregor Mendel was the first to conduct scientific studies of heredity Mendels experiments- conducted experiments investigating inheritance of traits in pea plants Pea plants were a good experimental subject because... 1. Easy to grow 2. Mature quickly 3. Show sharp contrast in traits 4. Structure and natural pollination method made it easy to use in controlled experiments Mendel studied these traits: 1. Seed shape 2. Seed color 3. Seed coat color 4. Pod color 5. Pod shape 6. Stem length 7. Flower position Mendel conducted his research from 1857 to 1865 Mendel discovered the Law of Dominance Mendel noticed certain traits come in 2 forms (i.e. tall or short) Mendel always started with plants pure for a trait 1. Mendel wanted to see what would happen if he crossed pure plants with contrasting traits. 2. Pure plants made up the parent or P generation 3. Mendel removed the stamen from a pure plant to prevent self fertilization and cross fertilized with contrasting plant trait Mendel collected seeds from cross fertilization and planted them to determine offspring Offspring were called filial or F1 generation 1. All offspring of cross between pure short and pure tall were tall Mendel tested all 7 pairs of contrasting traits and got similar results 1. Hybrid: offspring of crosses between pure parents showing contrasting traits Mendel wanted to know if trait for shortness was lost Mendel allowed hybrid F1 generation to self pollinate 1. Offspring of F1 x F1 cross are called second filial or F2 generation What were Mendels conclusions? Appearance of shortness in F2 showed that shortness was still present in F1 1. Traits expressed in F1 were dominant (i.e. tall) 2. Traits hidden in F1 were recessive (i.e. short) Law of Dominance: When an organism is hybrid for a pair of contrasting traits, only the dominant traits can been seen in the hybrid Law of Segregation: Factors that occur in pairs are separated from each other during gamete formation (meiosis) and recombined fertilization Types of Twins 1. Identical (Zygote Splits) 2. Fraternal (2 different cells) 3. Semi-Identical (1 egg fertilized by 2 sperm) Very Rare