Mendel’s Model of Heredity by Robey

Mendel was a very brilliant man, even though at the time people did not believe so. He studied heredity and how traits are passed on from generation to generation. He discovered that studying pea plants would be a good plant to study in order to have controlled breeding/reproduction, and they reproduced relatively quickly.

The genes passed on come in different forms called alleles. Each allele is responsible for different traits. Some carrier have the same alleles called homozygous or  some carriers have two different alleles called heterozygous. In Heterozygous one allele may be able to mask or cover up the other allele. The one that covers up the other is called the dominant trait, and the one being covered up is called the recessive trait.

Why do you think Gregor Mendel was so interested in heredity?

The recessive trait does not show up if there is a dominant trait, but if there is two recessive traits (homozygous recessive) then the recessive trait is the only trait to show up, because it is the only one present.

There is a somewhat simple way to see the different hereditary combos possible from two different parents. This method came from Mendel himself, but it was not until later that the method was defined. It is called the punnett square.

How do you think that Punnett came up with the Punnett Square?

What was his motivation to continue on after Gregor Mendel?

Through the Punnett Square, there are a couple different types of crossing. There is a monohybrid cross, which is crossing a single trait. There is also a Dihybrid cross, which is crossing two or more traits in a single Punnett Square.