Topic: Mendelian

Pattern of
Inheritance
Mendelian inheritance
(Mendelian genetics or Mendelism)

● Mendelian inheritance
- is a set of primary principles
relating to the transmission of
hereditary characteristics from
parent organisms to their
children; it underlies much of
genetics.
• Laws of Inheritance
The laws of inheritance were derived by
Gregor Mendel, a 19th century monk
conducting hybridization experiments in
garden peas (Pisum sativum). Between
1856 and 1863, he cultivated and tested
some 28,000 pea plants.
- From these experiments, he
deduced two generalizations
that later became known as
Mendel’s Laws of Heredity or
Mendelian inheritance. He
described these laws in a two
part paper, “Experiments on
Plant Hybridization”, which
was published in 1866.
• Mendel’s Laws
- Mendel discovered that by
crossing true-breeding white
flower and true-breeding
purple flower plants, the result
was a hybrid offspring. Rather
than being a mix of the two
colors, the offspring was purple
flowered.
Mendel’s Laws
- He then conceived the idea of heredity
units, which he called “factors”, one of
which is a recessive characteristic and the
other dominant.
1. Mendel’s Law of Segregation
● This law states that when
two traits come together in
one hybrid pair, the two
characters do not mix with
each other and are
independent of each other.
Each gamete receives one of
the two alleles during
meiosis of the chromosome.
1. Mendel’s Law of Segregation
● Mendel’s law of segregations
supports the phenotypic ratio of
3:1 i.e. the homozygous dominant
and heterozygous offspring show
dominant traits while the
homozygous recessive shows the
recessive trait.
 1. Mendel’s Law of Segregation
● The Gametes have two versions of each
chromosome: one contributed by the female
parent in her ovum and one by the male
parent in his sperm. These are joined at
fertilization. The ovum and sperm cells (the
gametes) have only one copy of each
chromosome and are described as haploid.
 1. Mendel’s Law of Segregation
● Alleles can be Dominant
or Recessive:
● Recessive traits are only
visible if an individual
inherits two copies of the
recessive allele: The child
in the photo expresses
albinism, a recessive trait.
2. Mendel’s 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.
 2. Mendel’s Law of Dominance
● The characters that appear
in the F1 generation are
called as dominant
characters.
● The recessive
characters appear in
the F2 generation.
3. Mendel’s Law of Independent Assortment/ Dihybrid cross

● This means that at the time of gamete

formation, the two genes segregate
independently of each other as well as of other
traits.
● The independent assortment of genes can be
illustrated by the dihybrid cross: a cross between
two true-breeding parents that express different
traits for two characteristics.
 Independent assorment/ Dihybrid
● Consider the characteristics cross: 2 traits are involved.
of seed color and seed
texture for two pea plants:
one that has green,
wrinkled seeds (yyrr) and
another that has yellow,
round seeds (YYRR).
Legend:
1. Seed shape
R = dominant round seed
r = recessive wrinkled seed
2. Seed color
Y = domimant yellow seed
y = recessive green seed
Monohybrid pattern of inheritance

● Is a pattern of inheritance from

two parents which differ in
ONE specific trait.
 Reginald Punnett
● This means that at the time of
gamete formation, he became
interested in the experimental
process during his stay at
Cambridge.

● Began a scientific collaboration

with William Bateson (who
was doing Mendelian
experimentation on plants and
animals)
● They both published the first account
of gene linkage in sweet peas and
later developed the “Punnett square”.
● Punnett Square - A tool used to predict
the possible breeding outcomes of two
genes segregate independently of each
other as well as of other traits.
How to use Punnett Square?
1. 2.

3. 4.
Step 1: Assign symbol for each allele.
In Mendel's experiment, what was the resulting
offspring when he crossed pure-bred tall pea plants and
pure-bred dwarf pea plants?
Question: Is there any chance to produce
dwarf pea plants from this cross?

Legend:
● Tt = height of the plant
Use UPPER CASE LETTER (T)
T = Tall for dominant allele and LOWER
t = drawf CASE LETTER for recessive allele
(ex. t).
Step 2: Determine the Genotype of each parent.

TT tt
pure-bred tall pure-bred dwarf
(dominant) (recessive)

Read the problem carefully. Look for clues to identify if the parent is
homozygous or heterozygous.
Step 3: Determine the kind of
Gametes produced by each parent.
TT tt
pure-bred tall pure-bred dwarf
(dominant) (recessive)
T T t t

Apply Mendel's Principle of

Segregation.
Step 4: Its time for Punnett Square
● 2. Write the genotypes of the first parent
● 1. Make a Punnett Square by drawing on top and genotype of the second
Grids where you are going to write the parent in the left side
possible genotypes of the resulting
offspring. ●
TT
3. Fill in each with two alleles one from

T T the parent along the top and one from

pure-bred tall
the parent long the side. The letters in
the middle show you all possible
1. 2.

t Tt Tt (dominant)
combination of alleles that can happen
when these gametes meet during
3. 4.
fertilization. tt
t Tt Tt ● 4.pure-bred dwarf
Determine the phenotype of each
offspring. Remember to obey Mendel's
(recessive)
Principle of Dominance.
Step 5: Identify the Genotypic and Phenotypic Ratios

● GENOTYPIC RATIO:

1.
T 2.
T Write all the possible
genotypes and count its presence in

t Tt
Tall
Tt
Tall
the Punnett Square
TT = 0 Tt = 4 tt = 0
3. 4. All Tt or 100% Tt
t Tt Tt ● PHENOTYPIC RATIO:
Write all the possible
Tall Tall
phenotypes and count its presence in
the Punnett Square.
Tall = 4 Dwarf = 0
All Tall or 100% Tall
Step 6: Given specific answer to a given question from the problem.

Question: Is there any chance to produce

dwarf pea plants from this cross?

ANSWER : There is no chance to have dwarf

pea plants from the cross because all offspring are
heterozygous.