Understanding Mendel's Cross: The Basis of Genetic Inheritance
Explore Mendel's cross and its foundational role in genetics through his experiments with garden peas.
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Mendel's cross refers to Gregor Mendel's experiments with garden peas, which formed the foundation of genetics. By cross-pollinating plants with different traits, Mendel discovered key principles of inheritance, such as dominant and recessive alleles. Through these crosses, he formulated the laws of segregation and independent assortment, explaining how traits are inherited from one generation to the next.
FAQs & Answers
- What is Mendel's significance in genetics? Gregor Mendel is known as the father of genetics for his foundational work on inheritance through his pea plant experiments.
- What are the laws of segregation and independent assortment? The laws of segregation and independent assortment describe how alleles separate during gamete formation and how different genes independently separate from one another when reproductive cells develop.
- How did Mendel perform his experiments? Mendel conducted his experiments by cross-pollinating garden pea plants with different traits and observing the traits in subsequent generations.
- What is the difference between dominant and recessive alleles? Dominant alleles express their trait even when only one copy is present, whereas recessive alleles require two copies to be expressed.