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Mendelian Laws of Inheritance

In his paper entitled “Experiments on Plant Hybridization” that was published in 1866, Gregor Mendel first introduced to the public his two new generalizations of heredity based on his prolific experimentation with pea plants. Prior to his research, it was a commonly held belief that heredity was a blending of the traits of the two parents, much as combining the colors blue and red will give you the color purple. Mendel’s thought was totally different. He stated that each parent passed on their genes in an unblended state, so that within an offspring would be found the all the genes of both parents, just outwardly manifested in varying degrees (hence the presence of dominant and recessive genes).

His first generalization is the Law of Segregation. This law states that, for any particular trait, its two alleles (alternate versions of the same gene) separate so that only one is passed to the offspring. Which of the two alleles is inherited is left to chance, thus explaining variations within siblings.

His second generalization is the Law of Independent Assortment. Put simply, this law states that traits are expressed independently of each other. For example, inheritance and expression of the genes for blue eyes does not directly affect inheritance and expression of the gene for hair color.

Web Resources On Mendelian Laws of Inheritance

Wikipedia: Mendelian Inheritance
Mendel

Book Resources On Mendelian Laws of Inheritance

Introduction to Mendelian Genetics and Gene Action by Paul W Sciulli
Mendelian Genetics: A Problem-Solving Approach by Ruth C. Von Blum, et al

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