Mendel's Peas and Hawkweeds

Mendel's Peas and Hawkweeds

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Many Scientists have contributed to the field of genetics. Yet the groundwork for today's modern genetics can be found in the work done by one man, Gregor Mendel. While there were many scientists who tried to answer the same questions before him, none were able to come to the successful conclusions he did.

Before Mendel's experiments, many other theories had been in place to answer the questions about why we look like our parents. Many of these beliefs were myths, and the true reasons behind heredity were not sought, because creation was the belief of the majority of people. Some of these beliefs include "'The preformation theory"' (Bowler, 2), in which it was believed that "the embryo grew from a perfectly formed miniature already present in the mother's womb ( or the father's sperm)." (Bowler, 2) Another theory was that of "'blending inheritance' in which the offspring's characters were always intermediate between those of its parents." (Bowler, 3) It was in the time of these theories that Mendel did his work, which was dismissed as stated in the story.

Mendel was a monk who taught in the monastery, and he did his experiments in the garden outside the monastery while teaching as said in the book. His main focus was on the garden pea, Pisum sativum.

One peculiarity of pea reproduction is that the petals of the flower close down Tightly, preventing pollen grains from entering or leaving. This enforces a system of self-fertilization, in which sperm and eggs from a particular flower Unite with each other to produce seeds. As a result, individual pee strains are Highly inbred, displaying little, if any genetic variation from one generation to The next. Because of this uniformity, we say that such strains are true-breeding. ( Snustad, 42)

In his experiments, Mendel tested many different traits. Among them were the following traits and the frequencies each appeared in:

Mendel was successful in his experiments, because he tested one trait at a time, as compared to other scientists who tried to follow multiple traits. This is what allowed him to be successful, although with what we know now, it is easier to follow many traits at a time.

In his first set of experiments, he crossed tall varieties with dwarf varieties. To do this,

He carefully removed the anthers from one variety before its pollen had matured and then applied pollen from the other variety to the stigma.