1.

Mendel picked common garden pea plants for the focus of his research
because they can be grown easily in large numbers and their reproduction can
be manipulated. Pea plants have both male and female reproductive organs. As
a result, they can either self-pollinate themselves or cross-pollinate with
another plant.

2. Self-pollination is when pollen from the same plant arrives

at the stigma of a flower (in flowering plants) or at
the ovule (in gymnosperms). There are two types of self-
pollination: in autogamy, pollen is transferred to the stigma of
the same flower; in geitonogamy, pollen is transferred from
the anther of one flower to the stigma of another flower on the
same flowering plant, or from microsporangium to ovule within
a single (monoecious) gymnosperm.

Cross pollination is when one plant pollinates a plant of

another variety. The two plants' genetic material
combines and the resulting seeds from
that pollination will have characteristics of both
varieties and is a new variety. Sometimes cross
pollinating is used intentionally in the garden to
create new varieties.

The P generation is the start of Mendel's work on

inheritance, or receiving genetic qualities by
transmission from parent to offspring. Basically it refers
to traits or genes that are passed from a parental
generation to its offspring.

The first filial (F1) generation is the result

of a cross between the parental (P)
generation. In Mendel's study of heredity
in pea plants, the parental generation in
the cross would be two true-breeding
(homozygous) plants that differ in a
particular trait; for example tall or short
plants, and purple or white flowers.The purpose of the cross is to
analyze the pattern of inheritance for a particular trait.
a hybrid is the offspring resulting from combining the
qualities of two organisms of different breeds, varieties,
species or genera through sexual reproduction. Hybrids
are not always intermediates between their parents, but
can show hybrid vigour, sometimes growing larger or
taller than either parent.

The parental generation (P) is the first set of

parents crossed.
The F1 (first filial) generation consists of all
the offspring from the parents.
The F2 (second filial) generation consists of
the offspring from allowing the
F1 individuals to interbreed .
Most of what we are talking about here is
with plants as they will interbreed.

Homologous,” in biology, means a similarity in internal or

chromosomal structures. With internal
structures, homology indicates organs that have similar
positions, structures, or evolutionary origins. It's important
to note, however, that organs do not have to have the
same function to be homologous.

Heterozygous refers to having inherited different forms of a particular gene from each
parent. A heterozygous genotype stands in contrast to a homozygous genotype, where
an individual inherits identical forms of a particular gene from each parent.
a trait or character is a feature of an organism. The
term phenotype is sometimes used as a synonym
for trait in common use, but strictly speaking, does
not indicate the trait, but the state of that trait (e.g.,
the trait eye color has the phenotypes blue, brown
and hazel).

Characteristics are traits or qualities.

Those characteristics are cellular organization,
reproduction, metabolism, homeostasis, heredity,
response to stimuli, growth and development, and
adaptation through evolution

An allele is a variant form of a gene. Some genes

have a variety of different forms, which are located
at the same position, or genetic locus, on a
chromosome. Humans are called diploid
organisms because they have two alleles at each
genetic locus, with one allele inherited from each
parent.

Dominance, in genetics, is the phenomenon of one

variant (allele) of a gene on a chromosome masking
or overriding the effect of a different variant of the
same gene on the other copy of the chromosome.[1]
[2]
The first variant is termed dominant and the
second recessive. This state of having two different
variants of the same gene on each chromosome is
originally caused by a mutation in one of the genes,
either new (de novo) or inherited.

A recessive gene is a gene that can be masked by a

dominant gene. In order to have a trait that is
expressed by a recessive gene, such as blue eyes, you
must get the gene for blue eyes from both of your parents.
You might remember the word recessive from biology,
where it most often appears. Its opposite is dominant and
is always living in its shadow. A recessive allele has to
team up with another recessive allele in order to show up.
We can also use recessive to describe something that has
the tendency to withdraw or recede, or something
pertaining to an economic recession.

The Punnett square is a square diagram that is used to predict

the genotypes of a particular cross or breeding experiment. It is
named after Reginald C. Punnett, who devised the approach.
The diagram is used by biologists to determine the probability of
an offspring having a particular genotype.

Reginald Crundall Punnett FRS (/ˈpʌnɪt/; 20 June 1875 – 3 January 1967)[1]

[2][3][4][5]
was a British geneticist who co-founded, with William Bateson,
the Journal of Genetics in 1910. Punnett is probably best remembered today
as the creator of the Punnett square, a tool still used by biologists to predict
the probability of possible genotypes of offspring. His Mendelism (1905) is
sometimes said to have been the first textbook on genetics; it was probably
the first popular science book to introduce genetics to the public.

In genetics, the phenotype (from Greek phainein, meaning 'to show',

and typos, meaning 'type') of an organism is the composite of the organism's
observable characteristics or traits. The term covers the
organism's morphology or physical form and structure,
its developmental processes, its biochemical and physiological properties,
its behavior, and the products of behavior. An organism's phenotype results
from two basic factors: the expression of an organism's genetic code, or
its genotype, and the influence of environmental factors.
A genotype is an individual's collection of genes. The
term also can refer to the two alleles inherited for a
particular gene. The genotype is expressed when the
information encoded in the genes' DNA is used to make
protein and RNA molecules.