It all Began in a Garden..

wild-life111.blogspot.com

No two humans are exactly alike. Why? Well, because our genetic makeup is never exactly the same. We inherit our genes from our parents, and the structure and function of those genes determine how our bodies work, how we look, if we have any disorders, etc. So how do we know all this? A man named Gregor Mendel discovered the principles of genetics, in a garden! He performed experiment after experiment on garden peas because they could be easily controlled. Other advantages of pea plants were that they perform self-fertilization and cross fertilization, and had easily observable characteristics. By studying and performing many experiments on those pea plants Mendel developed four hypotheses about genetics that would change science forever. The hypotheses were: Genes are found in alternative versions called alleles, For each characteristic, an organism inherits two alleles (one from each parent), If alleles differ the dominant allele determines the organisms appearance, and the Law of segregation which says that alleles separate during production of gametes so that they carry one allele for every gene. Mendel’s four hypotheses opened up a whole new world for scientists in the study of genetics which was only a stepping stone for the many discoveries in genetics that we have today.
Sources: Class Notes-Chapter 9: Patterns of Inheritance



http://images.search.yahoo.com/images/view;_ylt=A0PDoX2kU19QeV0AKdqJzbkF;_ylu=X3oDMTBlMTQ4cGxyBHNlYwNzcgRzbGsDaW1n?back=http%3A%2F%2Fimages.search.yahoo.com%2Fsearch%2Fimages%3Fp%3Dgregor%2Bmendel%2Bpea%2Bplants%26sado%3D1%26n%3D30%26ei%3Dutf-8%26fr2%3Dsg-gac%26tab%3Dorganic%26ri%3D7&w=467&h=300&imgurl=images.tutorvista.com%2Fcontent%2Fheredity-and-variation%2Fmonohybrid-traits-of-mendel.jpeg&rurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.tutorvista.com%2Fcontent%2Fbiology%2Fbiology-iii%2Fheredity-and-variation%2Fmendels-experiments.php&size=24.6+KB&name=...+characters+which+mendel+was+able+to+identify+in+the+pea+plants&p=gregor+mendel+pea+plants&oid=357b4dc8af1e237329175911a8d5b8a4&fr2=sg-gac&fr=&tt=...%2Bcharacters%2Bwhich%2Bmendel%2Bwas%2Bable%2Bto%2Bidentify%2Bin%2Bthe%2Bpea%2Bplants&b=0&ni=96&no=7&ts=&tab=organic&sigr=1343c846j&sigb=13o1onblc&sigi=12l1m3k4f&.crumb=Pj0egS5Mcvu