Gregor Mendel : Father Of Genetics

The basis of genetics were established by Gregor Mendel, an Augustinian monk in the mid to late 1800’s. Through the observations from cross-pollinating pea plants, Mendel was able to discover the basic laws of inheritance. Mendel’s experiment was to cross pollinate pea plants and observe how traits were passed on. He started his experiment with two true breeding pods,

3. When Mendel transferred pollen from one pea plant to another, he was ___ the plants.

The “Brassica rapa” is a fast plant known as the field mustard. This plant is well known for its rapid growing rate, which makes it an easy breeding cycle and easy to pollinate. In giving so this makes “Brassica rapa” a great participant for testing Gregor Mendel’s theories of inheritance. The “Brassica rapa” acts like a test subject in testing cross-pollination giving the understanding to the dominant allele of colored stems. There are different colors that are visible on the stem that are above the soil; the colors vary from green to purple. P1 seed was ordered, germinated and cross-pollinated until germination of the next off spring of plants were also done. It was

Gregor Mendel theorized that certain combinations of alleles in a genotype would result in a specific ratio of phenotypes expressed in each generation. For example, in the case of the dominant heterozygous anthocyanin genotype, the P1 with (ANL/anl) crossed with the P2 (ANL/anl) would result in a 1:2:1 ratio for genotypes (ANL/ANL), (ANL/anl) and (anl/anl). However,

The variables in this lab were different than the average science experiment. Instead of affecting the experiment to prompt different results, we just had F1 generation plants produce offspring so that we could study their specific traits. By looking at the variables, we can determine if they fit the Mendelian ratio and see if genes are linked on a chromosome.

30. What attributes of the garden pea plant made it an excellent organism for Gregor Mendel’s genetic studies?

     From simple heredity experiments with garden peas, to cloning sheep, the field of genetics has come a long way. Now we are closer to mapping out the human genetic map due to advances in technology, and years and years of research. Perhaps the most influential and groundbreaking scientist, Gregor Mendel, he was responsible to provide a path to where genetics is now today with his experiments of garden peas.

2. The idea was called blending inheritance. Gregor Mendel and other scientist as well, discovered that traits were inherited whole, and not blended. This discovery also led to the law of inheritance, which basically talked about traits. The law of inheritance explained that a trait might reappear if it once disappear in further generations. And since Darwin failed to provide an explanation for how traits could be maintained over subsequent generations, it gave an open for other scientist as well to make their own discoveries.

Johann Mendel, later changed to Gregor Mendel, was born on July 22nd of the year of 1822 in Hynice, Czechia. Gregor’s parents, Anton and Rosine Mendel, were farmers. When he was a boy, working on the farm had gotten him intrigued with fruit trees and gardening. He was a very bright student in grade school, but his parents’ had trouble paying his tuition to high school, and the same thing with the Olmutz Philosophical Institute. Sadly, he could not afford to go to the college, so instead he joined the Augustinian monastery. After that, he became a priest and adopting the new Christian name, Gregor.

Charles Darwin and Alfred Wallace like so many of their predecessors made observations of natural phenomena that inspired proposals of how life on earth evolved, unlike others these men formed plausible explanations of how the changes in populations occurred without having any knowledge of Mendelian genetics which was presented in 1868, and provided the micro-mechanism for evolution that Darwin could never explain with his theory of Pangenesis. Rather, based solely on the observations each made over time observing different species of populations around the world, both men were able to pen the ideals that would serve as the foundation of the modern theory of evolution.

Gregor Mendel once said, “My scientific studies have afforded me great gratification; and I am convinced that it will not be long before the whole world acknowledges the results of my work.” Mendel was a well-educated man who gravitated towards physics and math. His research was conducted over roughly 10 years(Gregor Mendel - Botanist, Scientist - Biography.com. (n.d.). Retrieved October 24, 2016, from http://www.biography.com/people/gregor-mendel-39282#!). Gregor Mendel is the reason we now know why our skin is a certain color, why our eyes are brown or blue, and why we share similarities with our parents. Mendel's experiments are relevant because he proved his laws.

3. Carlson, Elof Axel. Mendel's Legacy: The Origin of Classical Genetics. Cold Spring Harbor, NY: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, 2004. Print

Mendelssohn was born in Hamburg in 1809. His father Abraham Mendelssohn was a banker, while his mum Lea Mendelssohn was a highly educated artist and musician. Mendelssohn first had his piano lesson from his mum, but soon he was sent to study with the best teachers at that time such as Marie Bigot and Ludwig Burger. He also took composition lessons with Karl

Gene – the unit or heredity occupying a particular location on the chromosome and passed on to offspring

Another man who contributed greatly to the study of genetics, was an American biologist by the name of Thomas Hunt Morgan. He studied the ways that characteristics were passed from one generation of fruit flies to the next. He learned that the genes in fruit flies behaved in the same way as the genes in pea plants. He also noticed that certain genes were inherited together more often than random chance should allow.