Question

What is an example of Mendelian inheritance?

Answer 1

Mendelian inheritance:

1. It refers to patterns of traits that are passed from parents to the offspring.
2. These patterns of inheritance were established by Gregor Mendel, an Austrian monk, who was the first to discover how traits were passed from parents to the offspring by performing experiments on pea plants.
3. Pea color in pea plants is an example that exhibits Mendelian inheritance.
4. In pea plants Gene Y is dominant over gene y, hence the genotype with YY, Yy gives the phenotype of yellow peas, and the genotype with yy will only give green peas.
5. When parent 1 with genotype YY is crossed with parent 2 with genotype yy, results in 4 offspring with the same genotype Yy and the same phenotype ( Yellow).
6. When two parents with genotype Yy and Yy are crossed result in four offspring with genotype YY(Yellow), Yy(Yellow), Yy(Yellow), and yy(green).

Mendelian inheritance is governed by three basic laws:

1. Law of Dominance :

• The first law of inheritance explains that only one of the parental characters is expressed in the F1 generation and the expression of both parental characters in the F2 generation of a monohybrid cross gives a genotypic ratio of 3:1.

2. Law of segregation:

• The second law of inheritance explains that during the formation of gametes, the pair of alleles also segregate in such a manner that only one gamete receives only one of the two factors.

3. Law of independent assortment:

• The third law of inheritance states that when two pairs of traits are combined in a hybrid, the segregation of one of the characters is independent of the other pair of traits.