Mendel_s_lows

Name : …………………….
Date : ……………………… Class : MYP 5 / BIO

References : https://byjus.com. (n.d.). Retrieved from /biology/mendel-laws-of-inheritance/:
https://byjus.com/biology/mendel-laws-of-inheritance/
Mendel's Laws of Inheritance
Inheritance can be defined as the process of how a child receives genetic information from the
parent. The whole process of heredity is dependent upon inheritance and it is the reason that
the offspring are similar to the parents. This simply means that due to inheritance, the members
of the same family possess similar characteristics. It was only during the mid 19th century that
people started to understand inheritance in a proper way. This understanding of inheritance
was made possible by a scientist named Gregor Mendel, who formulated certain laws to
understand inheritance known as Mendel’s laws of inheritance.

Between 1856-1863, Mendel conducted the hybridization experiments on the garden peas.
During that period, he chose some distinct characteristics of the peas and conducted some
cross-pollination/ artificial pollination on the pea lines that showed stable trait inheritance and
underwent continuous self-pollination. Such pea lines are called true-breeding pea lines. He
selected a pea plant for his experiments due to :
1. The pea plant can be easily grown and maintained.

2. They are naturally self-pollinating but can also be cross-pollinated.
3. It is an annual plant, therefore, many generations can be studied within a short period
of time.
4. It has several contrasting characters.
While experimenting, Mendel found that certain factors were always being transferred down
to the offspring in a stable way. Those factors are now called genes i.e. genes can be called
the units of inheritance. Mendel conducted 2 main experiments to determine the laws of
inheritance. These experiments were:
Monohybrid Cross
In this experiment, Mendel took two pea plants of opposite traits (one short and one tall) and
crossed them. He found the first generation offspring were tall and called it F1 . Then he
crossed F1 and obtained both tall and short plants in the ratio 3:1. To know more about this
experiment. Mendel even conducted this experiment with other contrasting traits like green
peas vs yellow peas, round vs wrinkled, etc. In all the cases, he found that the results were
similar. From this, he formulated the laws of Segregation And Dominance.
Dihybrid Cross
In a dihybrid cross experiment, Mendel considered two traits, each having two alleles. He
crossed wrinkled-green seed and round-yellow seeds and observed that all the first generation
progeny (F1) were round-yellow. This meant that dominant traits were the round shape and
yellow colour. He then self-pollinated the F1 and obtained 4 different traits wrinkled-yellow,
round-yellow, wrinkled-green seeds and round-green in the ratio 9:3:3:1.
After conducting for other traits, the results were found to be similar. From this experiment,
Mendel formulated his second law of inheritance i.e law of Independent Assortment.
Conclusions from Mendel’s Experiments:
 The genetic makeup of the plant is known as the genotype. On the contrary, the
physical appearance of the plant is known as phenotype
 The genes are transferred from parents to the offspring in pairs known as allele.
 During gametogenesis when the chromosomes are halved, there is a 50% chance of
one of the two alleles to fuse with the other parent.
 When the alleles are the same, they are known as homozygous alleles and when the
alleles are different they are known as heterozygous alleles.
Mendel’s laws:
The two experiments lead to the formulation of Mendel’s laws known as laws of inheritance
which are:
1- Law of Dominance
This is also called Mendel’s first law of inheritance. According to the law of dominance, hybrid
offspring will only inherit the dominant trait in the phenotype. The alleles that are suppressed
are called as the recessive traits while the alleles that determine the trait are known as the
dormant traits.
2 - Law of Segregation
The law of segregation states that during the production of gametes, two copies of each
hereditary factor segregate so that offspring acquire one factor from each parent. In other
words, allele (alternative form of the gene) pairs segregate during the formation of gamete and
re-unite randomly during fertilization. This is also known as Mendel’s third law of inheritance.
3 - Law of Independent Assortment
Also known as Mendel’s second law of inheritance, the law of independent assortment states
that a pair of trait segregates independently of another pair during gamete formation. As the
individual heredity factors assort independently, different traits get equal opportunity to occur
together.
H.W :
1) Justify Why is the law of segregation known as the law of purity of gametes?
2) Recall Which is the universally accepted law of inheritance?

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Name : …………………….

Date : ……………………… Class : MYP 5 / BIO

Mendel's Laws of Inheritance

people started to understand inheritance in a proper way. This understanding of inheritance

understand inheritance known as Mendel’s laws of inheritance.

1. The pea plant can be easily grown and maintained.

Conclusions from Mendel’s Experiments:

3 - Law of Independent Assortment

2) Recall Which is the universally accepted law of inheritance?

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