Mendelian Inheritance

• Gregor Mendel

  • Father of Genetics.
  • Austrian botanist and plant experimenter who laid the mathematical foundation of the science of genetics.
• Genotype - a unique expression of an organism's DNA (Ex. BB, bb, Bb)

  Phenotype - an observable expression of a genotype (Ex. Hair, eye color.
• Laws of Mendelian Genetics

  1. Law of Dominance
  2. Law of Segregation
  3. Law of Independent Assortment
• Law of Dominance

  • in two different alleles, the dominant trait will mask the recessive gene.
  • Also known as the first law of inheritance.
• Law of Segregation

  • an organism makes gametes, each gamete receives just one gene copy, which is selected randomly.
  • Each parent will pass one allele to the offspring.
• Law of Independent Assortment

  • two or more traits are inherited separately from each other and don’t always occur together.