Lecture 10 - Monohybrid Crosses

• Gregor Mendel

  • Austrian Monk from mid 19th century
  • Considered to be the “Father of Genetics”
  • Did experiments with garden peas to explain the mechanism of heredity and inheritance in plants.
  • He studied 7 characteristics: see colour, seed shape, pod shape, pod colour, flower colour, flower position, & stem length.
• Mendel’s Experiments

  • The breeding of two organisms with different traits is called a cross.
  • Mendel would cross two parent plants (P generation) making daughter plants (F1 generation).
  • If two plants from the F1 generation are to cross they would produce F2 generation plants. 
• • Each gene has a locus on a chromosome. Most genes will exist in two forms (dominant and recessive) each called an Allele.
• • If the two alleles on a gene are the same the individual is homozygous
• • If the two alleles on the gene are different the individual is heterozygous
• • The set of alleles that individual has is a genotype
• • But the outward appearance on an individual will be its phenotype.