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Biology - Mendel's work

Mendel's work

_Gregor Mendel _(1822-1884) established the science of genetics - though
he was not aware of it at the time! He did not know the scientific basis
for genetics such as chromosomes, DNA [1] and genes as we do today. Mendel
controlled the breeding of pea plants and, by observing the number and
types of phenotypes [2] in the offspring plants, he developed the rules of
inheritance known today as Mendel's laws.

Mendel studied the ways in which characteristics or traits [3] are passed
from generation to generation. He used pea plants - why?

They:

* have identifiable 'either or' characteristics such as tall plant or
short (think of the others)

* are capable of self pollination and cross pollination (why is this
significant?)

* produce large numbers of offspring (why is this important?)

* are easy to keep.

Mendel crossed pure-breeding [4] tall plants with pure-breeding dwarf
(short) plants with the following results:

PARENT 1

PARENT 2

PARENT
Tall
X
Dwarf

F1

all tall
X selfed

F2
tall

tall

787

277

RATIO
3
:
1

What did Mendel conclude after he crossed pure-breeding tall plants with
pure-breeding dwarf (short) plants?

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[1] http://alison.com/#
[2] http://alison.com/#
[3] http://alison.com/#
[4] http://alison.com/#