Mendel’s Law of Inheritance

Key Terminologies:
1. Gene - is a physical and functional unit of heredity, a sequence of DNA that codes for a specific trait.
2. Genome - the entire genetic complement (DNA) of an organism.
3. Genetics - is the study of heredity.
4. Alleles - one of two or more variants of a gene that determines a particular trait for a characteristic.
5. Locus - a specific, fixed position on a chromosome where a particular gene is located.
6. Chromosomes - threadlike structures made of protein and a single molecule of DNA that serve to carry the
genomic information from cell to cell.
7. Homozygous - having two identical alleles for a given gene on the homologous chromosome.
8. Heterozygous - having two different alleles for a given gene on homologous chromosomes.
9. Dominant - describes a trait that masks the expression of another trait when both versions of the gene are
present in an individual.
10. Recessive - describes a trait whose expression is masked by another trait when the alleles for both traits
are present in an individual.
11. Genotype - the underlying genetic makeup of, consisting of both physically visible and non-expressed
alleles of an organism.
12. Phenotype - the observable traits expressed by an organism.
13. Monohybrid - the result of a cross between two true-breeding parents that express different traits for only
one characteristic.
14. Dihybrid - the result of a cross between two true-breeding parents that express different traits for two
characteristics.

Mendel’s Mendelian System

Our modern understanding of how traits may be inherited through generations comes from the principles
proposed by Gregor Mendel in 1865. However, Mendel didn't discover these foundational principles of inheritance
by studying human beings, but rather by studying Pisum sativum, or the common pea plant. Mendel was curious
about how traits were transferred from one generation to the next, so he set out to understand the principles of
heredity in the mid-1860s. Peas were a good model system, because he could easily control their fertilization by
transferring pollen with a small paintbrush. This pollen could come from the same flower (self-fertilization), or it
could come from another plant's flowers (cross-fertilization).
Before Mendel's experiments, most people believed that traits in offspring resulted from a blending of the
traits of each parent. However, when Mendel cross-pollinated one variety of purebred plant with another, these
crosses would yield offspring that looked like either one of the parent plants, not a blend of the two. For example,
when Mendel cross-fertilize plants with wrinkled seeds to those with smooth seeds, he did not get progeny with
semi-wrinkly seeds. Instead, the progeny from this cross had only smooth seeds. In general, if the progeny of
crosses between purebred plants looked like only one of the parents with regard to a specific trait, Mendel called
the expressed parental trait the dominant trait.
Plants he used in the first generation refer to parental generation one (P0), offsprings were called first filial
generation (F1). He allowed F1 to self-fertilize naturally and produce the second filial generation (F2).
Mendel applied pollen from violet flowers to the stigma of white flowers and vice versa – reciprocal cross.
F1 had 100% violet flowers. The F2 generation had 705 violet flowers and 224 white flowers.
Mendel concluded that characteristics could be divided into expressed and latent traits, he called these
dominant and recessive traits.
The Punnett Square Approach for a Monohybrid Cross
When fertilization occurs between two true-breeding parents that differ in only one characteristic, the
process is called a monohybrid cross, and the resulting offspring are monohybrids. Mendel performed seven
monohybrid crosses involving contrasting traits for each characteristic. On the basis of his results in F1 and F2
generations, Mendel postulated that each parent in the monohybrid cross contributed one of two paired unit
factors to each offspring and that every possible combination of unit factors was equally likely.

Mendel investigated the pairs of pea plants with one contrasting trait. Mendel studied the following seven
characters with contrasting traits:

Flower color: Violet/white

Flower position: Axial/terminal
Pod color: Green/yellow
Pod shape: Inflated/constricted
Seed color: Yellow/green
Seed shape: Round/wrinkled
Stem height: Tall/dwarf

To demonstrate a monohybrid cross, consider the case of true-breeding pea plants with yellow versus
green pea seeds. The dominant seed color is yellow; therefore, the parental genotypes were YY ( homozygous
dominant) for the plants with yellow seeds and yy (homozygous recessive ) for the plants with green seeds,
respectively. A Punnett square, devised by the British geneticist Reginald Punnett, can be drawn that applies the
rules of probability to predict the possible outcomes of a genetic cross or mating and their expected frequencies.
To prepare a Punnett square, all possible combinations of the parental alleles are listed along the top (for one
parent) and side (for the other parent) of a grid, representing their meiotic segregation into haploid gametes. Then
the combinations of egg and sperm are made in the boxes in the table to show which alleles are combining.
Because each possibility is equally likely, genotypic ratios can be determined from a Punnett square. If the pattern
of inheritance (dominant or recessive) is known, the phenotypic ratios can be inferred as well. For a monohybrid
cross of two true-breeding parents, each parent contributes one type of allele. In this case, only one genotype is
possible. All offspring are Yy and have yellow seeds.
 Monohybrid crosses are used by geneticists to observe how the offspring of homozygous individuals
express the heterozygous genotypes they inherit from their parents. Typically, this mix determines the dominant
genotype.
A monohybrid cross can also signify a genetic mix between two individuals who have heterozygous
genotypes. These crosses confirm the dominance of an allele.

Law of Inheritance - Mendel generalized the result of his pea-plant experiments into four postulates, some of which
are sometimes called “laws” that describe the basis of dominant and recessive inheritance in diploid organisms.
Law of Dominance - states that in a heterozygote, one trait will conceal the presence of another trait for the same
characteristic. “Some alleles are dominant while others are recessive. An organism with at least one dominant
allele displays the effect irrespective of the presence of the recessive one.”
Law of Segregation - states that paired unit factors (genes) must segregate equally into gametes such that offspring
have an equal likelihood of inheriting either factor. During the gamete formation, the allele for each gene
segregates from each other such that each gamete formed carries only one allele for each gene.
Law of Independent Assortment - states that genes do not influence each other with regard to the sorting of alleles
into gametes, and every possible combination of alleles for every gene is equally likely to occur. Genes for different
traits assort independently of each other during gamete formation.
Dihybrid Cross
The independent assortment of genes can be illustrated by the dihybrid cross, a cross between two
true-breeding parents that express different traits for two characteristics. Consider the characteristics of seed color
and seed texture for two pea plants, one that has green, wrinkled seeds (yyrr) and another that has yellow, round
seeds (YYRR). Because each parent is homozygous, the law of segregation indicates that the gametes for the green
plants are all yr, and the gametes for the yellow/round plant are all YR. Therefore, the F1 generation of offspring all
are YyRr.