1. Introduction to Mendelian Genetics

2. Some History ?
For thousands of years farmers and herders have been selectively breeding their plants and animals to produce more useful hybrids
It was somewhat of a hit or miss process since the actual mechanisms governing inheritance were unknown
Knowledge of these genetic mechanisms finally came as a result of careful laboratory breeding experiments carried out over the last 150 years
Started with the studies of an Austrian monk = Gregor Mendel
Watch only first 45 seconds of video

3. Who was Gregor Mendel? He is known as the “FATHER OF GENETICS”
He discovered how traits were inherited – the 1st scientist to obtain successful results from inheritance studies due to his methodology
Lived: 1822 – 1884
His work was “unimportant” until early 1900’s
Gregor Mendel is standing, fourth second from the right
GENETICS – study of heredity
HEREDITY – the passing of traits from parents to offspring

4. Mendel’s Home & Garden

5. Mendel’s Peas Mendel did his study on 29,000 pea plants over 14 years
Pea plants have many easily observed traits (tall/short, purple flowers/white flowers)=phenotypes
Pea plants can be self-fertilized or cross-fertilized (cross pollinated)
Mendel learned how to control the fertilization of pea plants by controlling the fertilization process. Phenotype = OBSERVABLE characteristics

6. Cross Pollination
The pollen contains the male gamete and can be “picked up” by a fine brush
The carpel is the female reproductive structure in a flower and contains the ovary where fertilization of the female gamete occurs
Fertilization occurs after pollen has landed (or placed) upon the carpel

7. Tall purebred x Short prurebred = Hybrid
Genetic Terminology
True-Breeding – (PURE BRED) these organisms ALWAYS create offspring that look like themselves (same phenotypes or traits)
Hybrids – offspring from different true-breeding organisms
Tall purebred x Short prurebred = Hybrid

8. Ideas about traits during Mendel’s time
Most scientists thought that traits blended in offspring to produce “middle ground” offspring
Parent
Offspring
Parent

9. Mendel’s Observations & Ideas
While observing many generations of pea plants, Mendel found that sometimes traits seemed to disappear for a generation and then reappear in later generations.
He determined:
Some factor MUST be passed from generation to generation for this to occur.
(We now know these as GENES)
Those traits that disappeared were recessive to other traits that were dominant.
(GENES can be in different forms = ALLELES).
From his observations, Mendel concluded that most traits are either dominant or recessive and do not blend in offspring.

10. Genes and Alleles Genes – factors that determine your traits
Mendel determined that each trait is controlled by two factors (alleles)
One from male, one from female – they can be different)

11. Genotype is represented by capital and lower case letters
Mendel’s Experiments
Pure Bred
Hybrid
Hybrid
“Mating” the plants are called “crosses”. The dominant trait is capitalized (T), while the recessive trait is lower case (t).
Parents = P
First generation offspring = F1
Second generation offspring = F2
Observable trait = phenotype Genetic makeup = genotype
Genotype is represented by capital and lower case letters

12. Explaining the Cross Results
When a parent makes sperm or eggs, their genes separate randomly         (PRINCIPLE OF SEGREGATION)
The GAMETES (egg or sperm) contain either a T allele (tall) or a t allele (short)
During meiosis, homologous chromosomes separate (segregate) independently

13. Since the F1 generation was ALL TALL, Mendel determined that “tall” is dominant over “short”.

15. Three important conclusions
to Mendel’s research
Principle of Dominance and Recessiveness
One allele in a pair may mask the effect of the other
Principle of Segregation
The two alleles for a characteristic separate during the formation of eggs and sperm
Principle of Independent Assortment
The alleles for different characteristics are distributed to reproductive cells independently