Gregor Mendel and his laws of inheritance

Who was Gregor Johann

Mendel?
• Father and Founder of genetics.

• Mendel conducted many experiments on the pea plant

(Pisum sativum) between 1856 and 1863.

• Mendel presented his paper Experiments on Plant

Hybridization", at the Natural History Society of Brno in
1865 but was ignored

• Three scientists rediscovered his work independently Hugo

De Vries, Von Tschermak and Carl Correns in 1900
 • easy to grow and can be sown each year.

• perfect flowers contain both male and

female parts and usually self-pollinate.

• Has many contrasting traits

• Self-pollination happens before the flowers

open, so progeny are produced from a single
plant.

• can also be cross-pollinated by hand, simply

by opening the flower buds to remove their
pollen-producing stamen (and prevent self-
pollination) and dusting pollen from one

Why garden pea? plant onto the stigma of another.

 Seed color
Seed shape
Flower colour
Flower position
Plant height
Pod shape
Pod color

Which characters?
Main schematic of experiments
• He studied one contrasting character at a time

• He cross-pollinated two pure lines for contrasting characters

• the resultant offsprings were called F1 generation (first filial

generation).

• The F1 generations were then self-pollinated which gave rise to the F2

generation of second filial generation.
Law of dominance
• This law states that in a
heterozygous condition
• the allele whose characters are expressed
over the other allele is called the dominant
allele and the characters of this dominant
allele are called dominant characters.
• The characters that appear in the F1
generation are called as dominant
characters. The recessive characters
appear in the F2 generation.
Law of segregation
• Alleles for a gene segregate or separate from each
other during gamete formation and pass on to
different gametes

• Each gamete receives one of the two alleles during

meiosis of the chromosome.
Law of independent assortment

• there are separate genes for

separate traits and characters,
and they influence and sort
themselves independently of
the other genes.
• at the time of gamete and
zygote formation, the genes are
independently passed on from
the parents to the offspring.
Conclusions
• Characters are unitary. That is, they are discrete (purple vs. white,
tall vs. dwarf).
• Genetic characteristics have alternate forms, each inherited from one
of two parents. Today, we call these alleles.
• One allele is dominant over the other. The phenotype reflects the
dominant allele.
• Gametes are created by random segregation.
• Different traits have independent assortment. In modern terms,
genes are unlinked.
Sr. no. Particulars Qualitative Traits Quantitative Traits

1 Gene involved One or few Several

2 Effect of individual gene Large & detectable Small and undetectable

3 Variation Discontinuous Continuous

4 Grouping into distinct classes Possible Not possible

5 Effect of environment Little High

6 Metric Measurement Not possible Possible

7 Analysis Based on frequencies and ratios Means, variance, covariances

8 Stability High Low to medium

9 e.g., Colour, shape, surface of plant parts Yield , tolerance to heat stress
Exceptions
incomplete dominance
• two alleles of a gene pair are not related as
dominant and recessive, but each of them
expresses itself partially.
• in four-o'clock plant, Mirabilis jalapa, when
plants with red flowers (RR) are crossed
with plants having white flowers (rr), the
hybrid F1 plants (Rr) bear pink flowers.
• When these F1 plants with pink flowers are
self-pollinated they develop red (RR), pink
(Rr) and white (IT) flowered plants
 Codominance

• both alleles express their phenotypes in

heterozygote greater than an intermediate
one.
• In case of codominance both alleles are
active while in case of incomplete
dominance both alleles blend to make an
intermediate one.
Polygenes
• Kernel color in wheat is controlled by a
number of genes, each gene giving its
small additive effect
 Pleiotropism

• The opposite of polygene effect is

known as pleiotropism i.e., a single
gene influence or govern many
characters.
Multiple alleles
• When a trait is governed by more than two alleles with
each allele having its own effect

• Blood group in humans is a classic example

• The ABO system in humans is controlled by three alleles

IA, IB, and IO

• IA and IB are codominant and produce type A and type B

antigens, respectively

• while IO is the recessive allele and produces no antigen.

 Epistasis

• Epistasis is when a gene at

one location (locus) alters
the phenotypic expression
of a gene at another locus.
Recessive or supplementary epistasis
9:3:4

• When recessive alleles at one locus mask the

expression of both (dominant and recessive) alleles at
another locus
• There are three colours of grain in maize, viz., purple,
red and white.
• r is epistatic to P and p but recessive to R
• The purple colour develops in the presence of two
dominant genes (R and P),
• red colour in the presence of a dominant gene R, and
• white in homozygous recessive condition (rr--).
 Dominant or simple epistasis
12:3:1

• When a dominant allele at one locus can mask the

expression of both alleles (dominant and recessive) at
another locus, it is known as dominant epistasis.
• There are three types of fruit colours in this cucumber,
viz., white, yellow and green.
• White colour is controlled by dominant gene W and
yellow colour by dominant gene G.
• White is dominant over both yellow and green.
• W is epistatic to G and g
• G and g are hypostatic
 Dominant Inhibitory
epistasis
13:3
• a dominant allele at one locus can
mask the expression of both
(dominant and recessive) alleles at
second locus
• For example anthocyanin
pigmentation in rice.
• The green colour of plants is governed
by the gene I which is dominant over
purple colour.
• The purple colour is controlled by a
dominant gene P.
• I allele is epistatic to P and p
 • When recessive alleles at either of
the two loci can mask the expression
of dominant alleles at the two loci.
• Also known as complimentary
epistasis
• The best example flower colour in
sweet pea.
• recessive allele a is epistatic to B/b
alleles and mask the expression of
these alleles.
• Another recessive allele b is epistatic
to A/a alleles and mask their
Duplicate recessive epistasis expression.

9:7
 • When a dominant allele at either of
two loci can mask the expression of
recessive alleles at the two loci
• A good example of duplicate
dominant epistasis is awn character
in rice.
• The allele A is epistatic to B/b alleles
and all plants having allele A will
develop awn.
• Another dominant allele B is epistatic
to alleles A/a
• Awnless is produced for both
recessive alleles (aabb)
Duplicate dominant epistasis
15:1
 Polymeric gene action
9:6:1

• Two dominant alleles have similar effect

when they are separate but produce
enhanced effect when they come together.
• A well-known example is fruit shape in
summer squash.
• There are three types of fruit shape- disc,
spherical and long.
• The disc shape is controlled by two dominant
genes (A and B),
• the spherical shape is produced by either
dominant allele (A or B) and
• long shaped fruits develop in double
recessive (aabb) plants.