Genetics

Why do I have blue eyes?

Why do I have type A blood?

Why do I have brown hair?

Genetics

• The scientific study of heredity is called genetics.

• The passing of traits from parents to offspring is called heredity.

• A trait is a specific characteristic that varies from one individual to another.

The Father of Genetics

• Gregor Mendel was an Austrian Monk who lived during the mid 19TH Century.

• He studied the genetics of pea plants.

Gregor Mendel’s Peas

Mendel knew that – the male part of

each flower produces pollen, (containing sperm).

– the female part of the flower produces egg cells.

Pea Sex

• During sexual reproduction the sperm cell inside the pollen comes in contact with the egg cell through the process of Fertilization.

• The fertilized egg cell is now called a zygote which will continue to under go cell division and specialization to produce a new plant.

• Pea flowers are self-pollinating.

• Sperm cells in pollen fertilize the egg cells in the same flower.

• The seeds that are produced by self-pollination inherit all of their characteristics from the single plant that bore them.

• Mendel had true-breeding pea plants that, if allowed to self-pollinate, would produce offspring identical to themselves.

• Mendel wanted to produce seeds by joining male and female reproductive cells from two different plants.

• He cut away the pollen-bearing male parts of the plant and dusted the plant’s flower with pollen from another plant.

• This process is called cross-pollination.

• Mendel was able to produce seeds that had two different parents.