1. Why do I have type A blood?
Genetics
Why do I have blue eyes?
Why do I have type A blood?
Why do I have brown hair?

2. Genetics The scientific study of heredity is called genetics.
The passing of traits from parents to offspring is called heredity.
A trait is a specific characteristic that varies from one individual to another.

3. The Father of Genetics
Gregor Mendel was an Austrian Monk who lived during the mid 19TH Century.
He studied the genetics of pea plants.

4. Gregor Mendel’s Peas Mendel knew that
the male part of each flower produces pollen, (containing sperm).
the female part of the flower produces egg cells.
To cross-pollinate pea plants, Mendel cut off the male parts of one flower and then dusted it with pollen from another flower.

5. Pea Sex
During sexual reproduction the sperm cell inside the pollen comes in contact with the egg cell through the process of Fertilization.
The fertilized egg cell is now called a zygote which will continue to under go cell division and specialization to produce a new plant.

6. Pea flowers are self-pollinating.
Sperm cells in pollen fertilize the egg cells in the same flower.
The seeds that are produced by self-pollination inherit all of their characteristics from the single plant that bore them.

7. Mendel had true-breeding pea plants that, if allowed to self-pollinate, would produce offspring identical to themselves.
Mendel wanted to produce seeds by joining male and female reproductive cells from two different plants.
He cut away the pollen-bearing male parts of the plant and dusted the plant’s flower with pollen from another plant.

8. This process is called cross-pollination.
Mendel was able to produce seeds that had two different parents.
To cross-pollinate pea plants, Mendel cut off the male parts of one flower and then dusted it with pollen from another flower.