Mendel's Pea Plants

Objectives

• Describe the importance of Mendel
• Explain why Mendel studied pea plants
• Explain Mendel's first set of experiments

Gregor Mendel was an Austrian monk in the 1800s.

Mendel noticed that a tall plant and a short plant had offspring that were either tall or short, not medium height.

Mendel's Pea Plants

• Nearly 30,000 plants
• Fast growing
• Easy to raise
• Controlled pollination

Prevented self-pollination by removing the anthers, the male part, which produce pollen.

When pollen from one plant pollinated another plant it is called cross-pollination. The resulting offspring are hybrids.

Mendel began by experimenting with one characteristic at a time, starting with flower color (purple and white).

The parent plants are referred to as the P generation.

The offspring of the P generation are called the F1 generation.

All of the F1 flowers were purple, but when they self-pollinated 25% of the F2 generation were white.

Mendel formulated his law of segregation: there are two factors controlling a trait, one of which is dominant; these factors separate and go to different gametes when a parent reproduces.