Section 1: Origins of Hereditary Science



Chapter 12-1: Mendel and Genetics & 23-4 Flower Structure

Bellringer

List five characteristics that are passed on in families.

Name one characteristic that is inherited but that may also be influenced by behavior or environment.

Key Ideas

Why was Gregor Mendel important for modern genetics?

Why did Mendel conduct experiments with garden peas?

What were the important steps and results in Mendel’s first experiments?

What are the important parts of a flower?

Mendel’s Breeding Experiments

A monk named Gregor Mendel did breeding experiments in the 1800s with the garden pea plant.

The science of heredity and the mechanism by which traits are passed from parents to offspring is called genetics.

Modern genetics is based on Mendel’s explanations for the patterns of heredity in garden pea plants.

Most of Mendel’s experiments involved crossing different types of pea plants. In this case, the word cross means “to mate or breed two individuals.”

Features of Pea Plants

The garden pea plant is a good subject for studying heredity because the plant has contrasting traits, usually self-pollinates, and grows easily.

In the study of heredity, physical features that are inherited are called characteristics.

A trait is one of several possible forms of a characteristic.

The offspring of a cross between parents that have contrasting traits is called a hybrid.

In garden pea plants, each flower contains both male and female reproductive parts. This arrangement allows the plant to self-pollinate, or fertilize itself.

Cross-pollination occurs when pollen from the flower of one plant is carried by insects or by other means to the flower of another plant.

Mendel cross-pollinated pea plants by removing the male parts from some of the flowers then dusting the female parts with pollen from another plant.

The garden pea is a good subject for studying heredity because it matures quickly and produces many offspring.

Thus, Mendel was able to compare several results for each type of cross and collect repeated data.

Collecting repeated data is an important scientific method.

Mendel’s First Experiments

A monohybrid cross is a cross that is done to study one pair of contrasting traits. Crossing a plant that has purple flowers with a plant that has white flowers is an example of a monohybrid cross.

Mendel’s first experiments used monohybrid crosses and were carried out in three steps.

Each step involved a new generation of plants. A generation is a group of offspring from a given group of parents.

Plants that self-pollinate for several generations produce offspring of the same type. Such a plant is said to be true-breeding for a given trait.

The first group of parents that are crossed in a breeding experiment are called the parental generation or P generation. The offspring of the P generation is called the first filial generation, or F1 generation.

Mendel allowed the F1 generation to self-pollinate and produce new plants. He called this offspring the second filial generation, or F2 generation.

Mendel’s Experiment

Ratios in Mendel’s Results

All of Mendel’s F1 plants expressed the same trait for a given character. The contrasting trait seemed to have disappeared.

The contrasting trait reappeared, however, in some of the F2 plants when the F1 plants were allowed to self-pollinate.

For each of the seven characters that Mendel studied, he found a similar 3-to-1 ratio of contrasting traits in the F2 generation.

Mendel’s Crosses and Results

Sexual Reproduction in Flowering Plants

Relate flower structure to methods of pollination.

Describe fertilization in flowering plants.

FLOWERS/ Flower Parts

Flowers are specialized reproductive structures

Four whorls, or concentric rings or layers.

Sepal - outer whorl, which protects the developing flower before it opens.

Petals – second whorl – varies drastically

brightly colored - animal pollinated

small or absent - wind pollinated

Third whorl - Male reproductive structures - called stamens

Stamen has two parts anther and filament

Anther - at the top of the stamen and contains pollen grains (sperm).

Filament is stalk-like to support the anther.

Fourth whorl – innermost whirl contains female reproductive structures called a pistil that has three parts.

The base contains the ovary, which produces eggs.

A style is stalklike, and rises from the ovary.

The stigma is at the tip of the style, which traps pollen grains because it is sticky or has hairs.

Flower Parts

Pollination

In flowering plants, pollination is the transfer of pollen grains from anther to stigma.

Animal pollinators are attracted by bright petals and distinctive odors

Many different kinds of animals can be pollinators.

Including bats, bees, birds

Pollen sticks to their bodies and transferred to the next plant as they move to retrieve nectar.

Fertilization

Pollen from anther sticks to stigma

Sperm develop inside the pollen and are released into the style

Sperm moves down the style and fertilizes the egg in the ovary

Summary

Modern genetics is based on Mendel’s explanations for the patterns of heredity that he studied in garden pea plants.

The garden pea plant is a good subject for studying heredity because the plant has contrasting traits, usually self-pollinates, and grows easily.

Mendel’s first experiments used monohybrid crosses and were carried out in three steps.

For each of the seven characters that Mendel studied, he found a similar 3-to-1 ratio of contrasting traits in the F2 generation.

Flower are specialized reproductive structures to provide genetic variation in plants.

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