Mendelian Genetics

The passing of traits from parents to offspring is called heredity

Early Theories of Inheritance Lamarckism ▫The inheritance of acquired characteristics Blended Inheritance Lysenkoism ▫the acquisition of the competence to flower in the spring by exposure to the prolonged cold of winter

Gregor Mendel ( ) An Austrian Monk who is often called the father of genetics. He provided a basis for understanding heredity due to his pioneering work with garden peas. His work, “Experiments on Plant Hybridization” was originally published in 1866 but it was met with very little interest. The importance of Mendel’s work was not fully realized until the early 20 th century.

Mendel’s Experiments

The 7 characteristics of peas that Mendel studied.

Mendel’s Law of Dominance With regard to a particular characteristic such as seed shape, a hybrid looks like one parent or the other; it is not a blend of both. The trait that is seen is called the dominant trait and the trait that is not seen is called the recessive trait. Example: ▫Round peas are dominant to wrinkled peas. ▫Wrinkled peas are recessive to round peas.