TRUE OR FALSE?
1. 
2. 
3. 
4. 
5. 
6. 
7. 
8. 
9. 
Girls inherit more traits from their mother than their
father
You have inherited traits that are not apparent
Color blindness is more common in males than
females
Identical twins are ALWAYS the same sex
A person can transmit genetic traits to their offspring
which they themselves DO NOT show
The father determines the sex of a child
The total number of male births exceeds female births
each year
Acquired characteristics, like mathematical skills, can
be inherited
Fraternal twins are more closely related to each other
than to other siblings
Fundamentals of Genetics
Genetics
The field of Biology
devoted to understanding
how characteristics are
passed from parents to
offspring
A little review: 18 things you should know about Genetics:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVk0twJYL6Y
A little introduction:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=B_PQ8qYtUL0&list=PLHqvmhmxpssqySPQ22qjQrUIZllF
CM-Mj&index=7
Gregor Mendel “Father of Genetics”
 
 
 
In the 19th century (early 1860’s), Mendel
studied heredity- which is the transmission of
characteristics from parent to offspring
Mendel is most famous for studying pea plants
He studied what he called factors in pea
plants
– 
Factors would be things like tall or short (height), or
yellow or green (pod color)
  Mendel’s
factors
7
Gregor Mendel
 
First, Mendel grew true-breeding plants
–  According to Mendel, true-breeding plants
are plants that will always produce
offspring with the same traits
–  So a true-bred pea plant with purple
flowers will only produce plants with purple
flowers because it only has the factors for
purple (not white).
Gregor Mendel- P generation
 
Mendel bred two opposite true-breeding plants
 
For example, he bred a true-breeding purple
flower pea plant and a true-breeding white
flower pea plant
He called this his P generation
(parent generation)
 
Gregor Mendel- F1
generation
 
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All of the offspring of the P generation (which
he called the F1 generation) turned out
purple
Mendel called purple flower color the
dominant factor
He hypothesized that when the dominant
factor was present, the recessive factor
(white color) did not show.
Gregor MendelF2 generation
 
 
 
Next, Mendel crossed the offspring from the
F1 generation (he called this the F2
generation)
He observed that about 75% of the flowers
were purple and about 25% were white
This is equal to about a 3:1 ratio
P Generation
(true-breeding
parents)
F1 Generation
(hybrids)
F2 Generation
Purple White
flowers flowers
All plants had
purple flowers
 
TedEd: How Mendel’s pea plant helped us
understand genetics
– 
http://ed.ted.com/lessons/how-mendel-s-peaplants-helped-us-understand-genetics-hortensiajimenez-diaz