Mendels experimental method:

●​ Mendel performed hybridizations, which involve mating two true-breeding individuals that
have different traits.
●​ In the pea, which is naturally self-pollinating, this is done by manually transferring pollen
from the anther of a mature pea plant of one variety to the stigma of a separate mature
pea plant of the second variety.
●​ Plants used in first-generation crosses were called P, or parental generation, plants
●​ Mendel collected the seeds produced by the P plants that resulted from each cross and
grew them the following season.
●​ These offspring were called the F1, or the first filial (filial = daughter or son), generation.
●​ Once Mendel examined the characteristics in the F1 generation of plants, he allowed
them to self-fertilize naturally.
●​ He then collected and grew the seeds from the F1 plants to produce the F2, or second
filial, generation.
●​ Mendel’s experiments extended beyond the F2 generation to the F3 generation, F4
generation, and so on, but it was the ratio of characteristics in the P, F1, and F2
generations that were the most intriguing and became the basis of Mendel’s postulates
●​ Mendel presented the results of his experiments with nearly 30,000 pea plants to the
local natural history society. He demonstrated that traits are transmitted faithfully from
parents to offspring in specific patterns.
●​ In 1866, he published his work, Experiments in Plant Hybridization,1 in the
proceedings of the Natural History Society of Brünn .Mendel’s work went virtually
unnoticed by the scientific community, which incorrectly believed that the process
of inheritance involved a blending of parental traits that produced an intermediate
physical appearance in offspring.
●​ This hypothetical process appeared to be correct because of what we know now as
continuous variation. Continuous variation is the range of small differences we see
among individuals in a characteristic like human height. It does appear that offspring are
a “blend” of their parents’ traits when we look at characteristics that exhibit continuous
variation. Mendel worked instead with traits that show discontinuous variation.
 Discontinuous variation is the variation seen among individuals when each individual
shows one of two—or a very few—easily distinguishable traits, such as violet or white
flowers. Mendel’s choice of these kinds of traits allowed him to see experimentally that
the traits were not blended in the offspring as would have been expected at the time, but
that they were inherited as distinct traits.

He was not recognized for his extraordinary scientific contributions during his lifetime; in
fact, it was not until 1900 that his work was rediscovered, reproduced, and revitalized by
scientists on the brink of discovering the chromosomal basis of heredity.

Mendel's laws of inheritance

Laws of Inheritance
Mendel proposed three laws:
●​ Law of Dominance
●​ The Law of Segregation
●​ Law of independent assortment

Law of segregation
Mendel, who had no knowledge of chromosomes, proposed that the determining factors of
inheritance are discrete “unit factors” (now called genes) that maintain their integrity from the
time that the zygote is formed through the time that it matures and produces its own gametes.
During gamete formation, the members of these paired “unit factors” segregate from one
another and enter into separate gametes.
●​ The first law of inheritance.
●​ The law of segregation states that:
●​ ‘‘The two copies of each genetic factor segregate during the development of
gametes, to ensure that each parent’s offspring attains one factor.’’
OR
●​ ‘‘During the development of the gamete, each gene is segregated in such a way
that the gamete consists of just one allele for that gene.’’
 ●​ The copies of a gene are segregated when any individual produces gametes so that
each gamete accepts only one copy. One allele is received by a gamete.
●​ The exact proof of this was later discovered as the process of meiosis was understood.
●​ In meiosis, the mother’s and the father’s genes are separated, and so the character
alleles are separated into two distinct gametes.
●​ Mendel’s law of segregations supports the phenotypic ratio of 3:1 i.e. the homozygous
dominant and heterozygous offsprings show dominant traits while the homozygous
recessive shows the recessive trait.

The law of segregation states that each individual that is a diploid has a pair of alleles
(copy) for a particular trait. Each parent passes an allele at random to their offspring
resulting in a diploid organism. The allele that contains the dominant trait determines the
phenotype of the offspring. In essence, the law states that copies of genes separate or
segregate so that each gamete receives only one allele.

Law of Dominance

Mendel’s law of dominance states that in a heterozygote, one trait will conceal the
presence of another trait for the same characteristic.

Dominant alleles are expressed exclusively in a heterozygote, while recessive traits

●​ A single allele may be dominant over one allele, but recessive to another.
●​ Rather than both alleles contributing to a phenotype, the dominant allele will be
expressed exclusively.
●​ The recessive allele will remain “latent,” but will be transmitted to offspring by the
same manner in which the dominant allele is transmitted.
●​ The recessive trait will only be expressed by offspring that have two copies of this
allele; these offspring will breed true when self-crossed.
●​ The characters that appear in the F1 generation are called dominant
●​ Dominance is not inherent. One allele can be dominant to a second allele,
recessive to a third allele, and codominant to a fourth.
●​ If a genetic trait is recessive, a person needs to inherit two copies of the
gene for the trait to be expressed.
●​ Thus, both parents have to be carriers of a recessive trait in order for a
child to express that trait.

Law of Independent Assortment

Mendel's law of independent assortment states that the alleles of two (or more) different genes
get sorted into gametes independently of one another.

In other words, the allele a gamete receives for one gene does not influence the allele received
for another gene.

●​ Mendel’s law of independent assortment states that genes do not influence each
other with regard to the sorting of alleles into gametes; every possible combination
of alleles for every gene is equally likely to occur.
●​ The physical basis for the law of independent assortment lies in meiosis I of
gamete formation, when homologous pairs line up in random orientations at the
middle of the cell as they prepare to separate. We can get gametes with different
combinations of "mother" and "father" homologues (and thus, the alleles on those
homologues) because the orientation of each pair is random.