Gregor Mendel Research Paper

403 Words1 Page

Everyone is unique, each person has a distinct set of characteristics, or traits, that are different from anyone else's. Some traits are fairly noticeable, such as eye color, height, or freckles. Others are less visible, like musical talent or risks of disease. Some traits are inherited and others are shaped by the environment. For example, hair color and nose shape are controlled by genes, which are inherited by our parents. The language we speak and the type of food we like to eat are based on the environment or culture we grew up in. Gregor Mendel was born a peasant in Austria, in 1822. His father taught him the techniques of animal breeding and plant grafting. This peaked Mendel's interests and led him to do eight years of research, conducting …show more content…

Mendel's studies has helped us understand the science behind traits and genes. This information aids in the medical field, giving us the power to predict the probability of disease. The genes we inherit are a combination of the genes of both our parents; this is called inheritance. Each parent passes down one copy of each of their genes to their children. Which copy of each gene passed along is random, and may be different for each child. Each child gets a unique combination of each of their parents genes, this mixing contributes to genetic variation. This is why children resemble both their parents and each other. Looking farther back in the family tree, the parents DNA came from their parents, so the children also share DNA with their grandparents, but the amount of DNA shared is only half as much as they share with each parent. A pedigree is a diagram that follows a particular phenotype (an observable expression of an organism's genes) through several generations. Below is a Pedigree Chart of a family tree representing one trait (eye color). This particular chart follows eye color. The “P1” indicates the initial parents. “F1” represents their offspring, and

Open Document