Mendel's Method & Basic Genetic Concepts
Mendel's experimental approach was brilliantly simple yet effective. He first created "true-breeding" plants (the "P" generation) through self-pollination to ensure genetic purity. Next, he cross-pollinated these plants to produce the "F1" generation, and finally allowed the F1 plants to self-pollinate, creating the "F2" generation. His famous purple and white flower experiment revealed a 3:1 ratio in the F2 generation—a pattern that would become foundational to genetics.
When studying genetics, you'll encounter several key terms. An allele is simply one version of a gene likeyoumighthaveabrown−eyeallelefrommomandablue−eyeallelefromdad. Everyone has two alleles for each trait, and we pass one of these to our offspring. Dominant alleles (written with capital letters) show themselves even when paired with a different allele, while recessive alleles (lowercase letters) only show when two copies are present.
The difference between phenotype (what you can observe—like blue eyes) and genotype (the actual genetic code—like "Bb") is crucial for understanding inheritance patterns. Genotypes can be either homozygous (two identical alleles, like BB or bb) or heterozygous (different alleles, like Bb).
💡 Think of dominance like this: if a dominant trait is like a loud speaker and a recessive trait is like a whisper, you'll only hear the whisper when there's no loud speaker present!