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Who used pea plants to study the way traits are passed from parents to offspring?

Who used pea plants to study the way traits are passed from parents to offspring?

Gregor Mendel
The way in which traits are passed from one generation to the next-and sometimes skip generations-was first explained by Gregor Mendel. By experimenting with pea plant breeding, Mendel developed three principles of inheritance that described the transmission of genetic traits, before anyone knew genes existed.

What was Mendel’s experiment with pea plants?

Gregor Mendel, through his work on pea plants, discovered the fundamental laws of inheritance. He deduced that genes come in pairs and are inherited as distinct units, one from each parent. Mendel tracked the segregation of parental genes and their appearance in the offspring as dominant or recessive traits.

Who was Gregor Mendel What did he use for his experiment?

Mendel carried out his key experiments using the garden pea, Pisum sativum, as a model system. Pea plants make a convenient system for studies of inheritance, and they are still studied by some geneticists today.

Who is the father of genetics that study pea plants?

Gregor Mendel. Gregor Mendel’s work in pea led to our understanding of the foundational principles of inheritance. The Father of Genetics. Like many great artists, the work of Gregor Mendel was not appreciated until after his death.

Why do Mendel choose pea plant for his experiment?

Mendel choose pea plants for his experiments because of the following reasons: (i) The flowers of this plant are bisexual. (ii) They are self-pollinating, and thus, self and cross-pollination can easily be performed. (iv) They have a shorter life span and are the plants that are easier to maintain.

Why did Mendel experiment with true breeding pea plants?

By experimenting with true-breeding pea plants, Mendel avoided the appearance of unexpected traits in offspring that might occur if the plants were not true breeding. The garden pea also grows to maturity within one season, meaning that several generations could be evaluated over a relatively short time.

How are the traits of a pea plant controlled?

The traits expressed in the pea plant were controlled by some kind of particle. These hereditary particles are stable and passed on intact from parent to offspring through the sex cells. (NOTE: Sex cells or gametes were not a new idea, Mendel was aware that biologists knew sexually reproducing plants and animals needed to make gametes.)

How are genes segregated in a pea plant?

Figure 5. Mendel used letters to represent the genes (he called them particulate factors) that he proposed were found in pairs in the cells of the pea plants. These could vary in form (alleles) and segregate when sex cells (gametes) were formed as the plants prepared to sexually reproduce.

What did Gregor Mendel do to find out how traits were inherited?

Mendel and inheritance in peas Over 150 years ago, Gregor Mendel wanted to find out how traits were inherited. He spent 8 years on an extensive study cross-breeding pea plants and recording the traits of their progeny. He looked at traits such as flower colour, flower position, plant height, seed