Gregor Mendel, The Father Of Modern Genetics

There were two types of plants used. Both were of the same species, Brassica rapa but two of the plants contained rosette shaped complexes that were deficient in producing gibberellic acid compared to the wild-type plants. Therefore, they grew smaller and shorter as a phenotype. The Brassicaceae family includes cabbage, cauliflower, spinach, and many others. (

Two treatment groups were covered with a screen in order to reduce light intensity. Both groups were kept under a controlled light source for fourteen days and plant counts were taken at regular intervals.

The Wisconsin fast plant also known as the Brassica rapa belongs to the crucifer family of plants, closely related to cabbages, turnips, broccoli and other vegetables. Brassica rapa plants are used because they are viewed as model organism, a species that has been widely studied and can be breed in a laboratory. It is an ideal model organism because it has a short growing process. About 2 weeks after the plant is planted it will began flowering, possessing the ability to produce seeds at high planting density, is categorized as a petite plant size, and lastly has the ability to grow under continuous fluorescent lighting in a standard potting mix. This plants make it easy to track the genetic information passed from generation to generation

There are many ways to obtain seeds to grow flowers in the springtime, but not all seeds were created equal. Sunflower seeds, for example, can be bought at a garden store in a packet for $1.5 dollars per 6 gram packet, but they can also be found in bird seed for $3.53 dollars per 10 pounds. This experiment intends to find if the germination of a store bought packet of sunflower seeds matches the germination rate of sunflower seeds obtained from a bag of bird seed. While both seeds will germinate, it is believed that the bird seed will not be as robust in growth as the garden seed, due to the fact that the garden seed is made to be grown, while the bird seed is made for consumption.

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

Other forms of the genotype, (ygr/ YGR) and (YGR/YGR) will result in green leaves. A third gene in Brassica rapa is the rosette mutant, homozygous recessive. The genotype needed for the short, rosette plant form is (ros/ros). The other two genotypes (ros/ROS) and wild type (ROS/ROS) will result in the normal form of the plant. The phenotypes and genotypes are related in that the phenotypes provide a visible indication of the genotype. This is true in an individual with a homozygous recessive gene. However, in the case of dominant genes, since only one copy is needed for the phenotype to be present, then the second copy is not indicated. The second copy can be identified process where two individuals (P1 and P2) with the same dominant phenotype, called the parental generation, are bred. This produces an F1 or first generation of offspring. The F1 generation can also be bred and produce an F2 generation. Each individual in the F1 and F2 generations receives one copy from each parent of the 3-letter genotype code, called an allele.

At the start of this experiment we were required to obtain a set of four Wisconsin Fast Plants, which are genetically, known as Brassica rapa. These plants have been, “originally selected under continuous fluorescent light to grow and reproduce quickly for research purposes, these petite, fast-growing plants have been used for teaching biology concepts” (Wisconsin Fast Plants). These four pots that contain our plants will be under our watch for the next 16 weeks where we will show our results at the end of the semester.

In order to test this hypothesis and prediction, an experiment was conducted using a heterozygous F1 generation of Brassica Rapa seeds. The seeds were planted, pollinated, harvested (F2 generation) and germinated for observation. When leaves were visible, phenotypes (green vs. purple) were counted and recorded. The experiment took place over 13 weeks, spanning the full semester of General Biology Lab I. The sections that follow will detail the materials and methods used, the results of the investigation and an in-depth discussion of the outcomes.

Today’s lab incorporated the six steps of the scientific method to the growth and development of their own Wisconsin Fast Plant, also referred to as “Brassica rapa” in the scientific community. My group’s experiment included researching the effect of acidity on seed germination. The Wisconsin Fast Plant or Brassica rapa, was originally created by Professor Paul H. Williams at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. The word Brassica can refer to many different plants such as mustard plants, cabbages, rapes, broccoli, brussel sprouts, cauliflower, kale, kohlrabi, turnip, rutabaga, and the Chinese cabbage. The Brassica rapa plants were created to help provide a better understanding and more research on the Brassica plant’s family diseases. Brassica rapa plants are in the Cruciferae family, and are named this way because all of the plants have 4 flowers in the form of a crucifix.

The second step of the experiment was to soak the seeds in water overnight. This action was made to prepare the seeds for germination and making them more softer and less rigid. The seeds were placed in a bowl and were covered by tin foil. It was set up on the refrigerator to minimize any outside interference that may come to it. After a full night of absorbing the water, the seeds were ready to start the next stage.

Gregor Johann Mendel, the father of genetics, was born in 1822. He was a priest and scientist who became famous for his work and studies on the inheritance patterns using pea plants. Gregor Mendel used pea plants known as Pisumsativum in his research where he developed two fundamental laws of genetics known today as the “Law of segregation”, and the “Law of independent assortment” (Hartl, 1992). The “Law of segregation” states that when an individual produces a gamete, the copies of a given gene separate in which each gamete receives only one copy of that gene. The phenotypic ratio in the F2 generation according to the “Law of

Gregor Mendel was born on July 22 1822, in a rural part of what is now known as Czech Republic. His parents sent his away at the age of 11, to study, at the urging of the local priest. (Olby, 2016). His time away from home was difficult, as his family did not have the means to support him. To help his financial position, he began to tutor other students, but still had a serious case of depression, and needed to go back home 2 times to better his condition. (Olby, 2016) After several years of study, he entered the Altbrünn monastery. Here, he did not have to worry about making ends meet, and was able to interact with like-minded people. However, he went through another bout of depression, as the task of visiting the ill became too unbearable

order (Soudek, D. 1984). He became well known among people as Gregor (Sorsby, A.1965). Being a master at Mendel’s time was the region cutlery center, so he got involved with people and educated them about religion (Sorsby, A.1965). He achieved the monastery wide victory and experimental possibility. In 1849 Mendel became depressed and tired of working with the community in Brno, then for a period of time he went to Znaim and worked as a teacher. At that time, he failed the exam to obtain teaching-certificate.

In this paper, Mendel has explained for the first time the pattern of inheritance in an organism. He was wise enough to pinpoint the good genetic systems and hence choose a species, field pea, which is simple to work on. This plant has a short life cycle which helped him to grow many generations in few years. It also produced several seeds which gave him the freedom to see the different combinations in his experiments. The self-pollinating nature

No one really understood the genetic principles of these plants and animals so the experiments were sometimes dangerous and costly. In the 1890’s better microscopes were introduced into the scientific world and allowed scientist to further their study and knowledge in cell division. This was a key component in the study of genetics. Mendel is commonly known at the “father of modern genetics”. While being a teacher Mendel had time to have experiments of his own. Most of his time was spent on the testing of pea plants. He tried to use regular garden pea plants because they were easily accessible, grown in large numbers in the monastery gardens, and they were extremely easy to reproduce while not having to wait a long period of time before receiving results. Common pea plants have both male and female reproductive organs which gives them the ability to either self-pollinate or cross-pollinate.