Gregor Mendel and an Introduction to Genetics

Mendel’s Investigations


9. Lesson Summary

Lesson Summary


Wiki Commns
  • Gregor Mendel experimented with pea plants to learn how characteristics are passed from parents to offspring.
  • First, Mendel researched one characteristic at a time. This led to his law of segregation. This law states that each characteristic is controlled by two factors, which separate and go to different gametes when an organism reproduces.
  • Then Mendel researched two characteristics at a time. This led to his law of independent assortment. This law states that the factors controlling different characteristics are inherited independently of each other.
  • Mendel’s work was rediscovered in 1900. Soon after that, genes and alleles were discovered. This allowed Mendel’s laws to be stated in terms of the inheritance of alleles.

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