GN: Mendel's Law of Genetics Lesson

Mendel's Law 

Just as Mendel did, you will also discover how mathematics and probability can predict the traits of future offspring.

Genetics vs Heredity

Let's talk about traits.

More Information about Traits:

Traits can be physical (human height), behavioral (a cat's purr), or they may indicate a predisposition to disease (diabetes, heart disease).

Traits are located in your DNA and each individual receives two genes for each trait (one from each parent). A trait is a characteristic that gets passed down through generations.

Heredity is the inheritance of traits from one generation to the next. For instance, organisms may share a trait with their parents - like hair color. 

Years Ago:

For many years, humans used “selective breeding” to help in the field of agriculture. Selective breeding (also known as artificial selection), is breeding organisms for desired characteristics.

Some people believed in the Blending Model, where traits from both parents blend together to produce a new trait. No variation over time.

Other people believed in the Particulate Model, where “something” from each parent is passed to the offspring and combined. Variation over time.

Which is Correct?

Gregor Mendel gave us the answer to this question and much more through his experiments with pea plants.

Mendel's Work

Click through the presentation to learn about Mendel’s work, as well as scientific vocabulary words used in the study of genetics.

Mendel's Law of Genetics Challenge and Before You Go

Practice Time! Use the knowledge you learned from the lesson to complete the practice activities below.

Before You Go - You Need To Know

The following key points are from the explore section of the lesson. You must know the following information before moving to the next lesson. This is just a summary of the key points.

1. Who was Gregor Mendel?
   • He was a monk who studied inheritance patterns using pea plants. He is known as the Father of Genetics.
2. What is the difference between homozygous and heterozygous?
   • Homozygous means both the same (both dominant or both recessive), while heterozygous means different (one dominant and one recessive gene)
3. What are Mendel’s 3 principles?
   • Principle of Dominance and Recessiveness: one factor in a pair may mask the effect of the other
   • Principle of Segregation: 2 factors for a characteristic separate during meiosis (formation of egg and sperm cells)
   • Principle of Independent Assortment: factors for different characteristics are distributed to reproductive cells independently

IMAGES CREATED BY GAVS (FREEPIK)