Provide a precise description of the applicability of Mendelian principles of heredity in viruses, bacteria,
and algae.
Gregor Johann Mendel was an Austrian Monk, who is known as the father of genetics published the results of hybridization experiments in a journal back in 1856, where he postulated the principles of heredity, which is popularly known as Mendel’s laws. He found out that individual traits are passed to the next generation as distinct factors which maintain their physical character in a hybrid. These hereditary factors were later discovered as genes.
On the basis of Mendel’s hybridization experiment on Pisum sativum, a sexually reproducing angiosperm dicot, he proposed the following two principles of heredity:-
Law of segregation:
This law describes that each individual has two factors or genes for a particular trait. When the gamete formation occurs, each member of the pair of genes separates from each other so that each gamete bears only one gene. This principle tells us that the hereditary factors do not mix when present together and can segregate separately. This principle is only applicable to diploid organisms that produce haploid gametes at the time of sexual reproduction.
Law of independent assortment:
The principle of independent assortment was derived from Mendel’s dihybrid cross experiment. A cross which includes the analysis of two independent characters is called as dihybrid cross. According to this principle, the assortment of genes of one pair is independent of the other pair at the time of gamete formation. So, each pair of opposite traits behaves independently and is not associated with a particular trait. Therefore, new combinations of traits are produced in the offspring.
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