Name:________________________________________________________________________Date:______________________Per:_________
Mendel's Genetics Article Questions
Read the article and answer the questions. Some questions may require you to look for answers outside
of the article or think critically about the concepts presented.
1. Look up the word "hybrid" in the textbook or on the internet. What does it mean?
2. Why was selective breeding somewhat of a hit or miss process?
3. When did we gain knowledge of genetic mechanisms?
4. What invention allowed biologists to discover basic facts of sexual reproduction?
5. When was it invented?
6. What did Gregor Mendel get right?
7. When did he publish his ideas? How long was it before he was recognized?
8. What did Gregor Mendel spend his early life doing?
9. What did Mendel use for his research?
10. What were the seven traits Mendel observed that only occur in one of two forms?
11. Why were these observations critically important? (What was the leading theory in biology at the
time?)
12. What was the theory Charles Darwin proposed? Was it right or wrong?
13. Why did Mendel pick garden pea plants for his research?
14. What is the benefit/result of pea plants having both male and female reproductive organs?
15. Look up the word "purebred" in the text book or using the internet. What does it mean?
16. What three important conclusions did Mendel reach after crossing a yellow seeded pea plant with
a green seeded pea plant?
17. Look up the word "genes" in the book or on the internet. What does it mean?
18. What does "homozygous" mean? (It is in the article)
19. What does "heterozygous" mean?
20. What is a genotype?
21. What is a phenotype?
22. Look up the word "dominant" as it refers to genetics. What does it mean?
23. Look up the word "recessive" as it refers to genetics. What does it mean?
24. What two principles summarize Mendel's observations from these experiments?
25. What is the principle of segregation?
26. What is the principle of independent assortment?
27. Look up the word "chromosome" in the textbook or on the internet. What does it mean?
28. What did Mendel not realize?
29. What do geneticists today use to carry out their breeding experiments?
30. Why do geneticists use these organisms?