Mendel Essay Research Paper Mendel brought considerable

Mendel Essay, Research Paper

Mendel brought considerable insight to his studies. One of the most important decisions he made was to work in a system that was genetically simple as possible. His use of pure-breeding strains of pea plants is indicative of his quest for this simplicity.”*

Mendel used pea plants in his experiments because they were cheap, available, easy to grow, and most importantly, genetically simple. He made these choices out of common sense, to make observation and research easier to accomplish, which is needed when a scientist is beginning research from ground zero. Mendel was a smart guy!

One genetic advantage that pea plants have over other organisms is that they have a short generation time, which means that the children can grow to have kids of their own quickly. This was important to Mendel because he could conduct many more experiments with many more generations by using pea plants.

Another great genetic advantage that Mendel’s pea plants possessed was that they were hermaphroditic organisms. A hermaphrodite, from the Greek derivation, means that an organism possesses both male and female sets of sex organs. Thus, the pea plants could self-fertilize, which is very unusual of organisms. This does not means that the plants were asexual, only that they could reproduce without the help of outside assistance. This is advantageous to Mendel because he wouldn’t have to worry about mating the pea plants, because they could do that themselves very easily. Also, in determining the percentage of inheritance from the mother and the father, Mendel needed only to switch the sexes of the pea plants by keeping or removing the plant’s stamen, or male reproductive organ.

By using pure-breeding strains of pea plants in his experiments, Mendel created a very simple, and thus easy way of studying the genetics and heredity of organisms. Pure-breeding pea plants are plants which possess either all dominant or all recessive traits. This is beneficial in the F1 generation because the results can be easily attained by using a Punnet Device and Mendel’s five-step process. Hybrid trait crosses would be more difficult just because they are hybrid; part dominant and part recessive. The more hybrid a parent, the more complex the next generation. After a few generations, the results are very confusing, which is why Mendel chose to use only pure-breeding strains of pea plants in his experiments and research.

A genetically complex organism would make Mendel’s discoveries of new genetic ideas very difficult.

Instead, by using a simple lifeform, much new information could be collected and used. Mendel was very smart to chose pea plants, with a simple genetic system, over other, more complex systems.

2.(SEE FIGURE G.1)

Mendel created an easy and fun five-step process to use in his pea plant experiments and to discover and research the ratios of offspring produced by any two parents. G.B.E. students also find this process to solve any genetics problems diabolic old instructors might throw their way.

The first step of this process is to physically draw the two parents involved in the experiments. This drawing is also known as a phenotypic analysis, and is important to the scientist to easily recognize the individuals involved in the experiment, and the traits they possess. The drawing of the parents should be drawn to make the traits obvious, and their phenotypic traits should be written clearly. The parents should also be given sexes, male or female. Mendel’s pea plants were hermaphroditic, possessing both male and female traits, so changing them around would cause no change in the experiment’s results. Also, by exchanging the sexes of the pea plants, Mendel later discovered what percentage of inheritance the mother and father give to the offspring.

The second step of the execution process is to ascertain, or make certain, the genotypes of the parents. These genotypes are represented by capital and lowercase letters, and are used to restate the traits possessed by the parents. They are also used to determine the dominance or recessiveness of the traits. A dominant trait is represented by a capital letter, the first letter of the dominant phenotype. A recessive trait is represented by a lower-case letter, also the first letter of the dominant phenotype. Pure-bred or true-bred specimens’ genotypic analysis consists of either two capital letters (dominant) of two lower-case letters (recessive). Only a hybrid, or F1 parent’s genotypic analysis consists of both a capital and lower-case letter (dominant).

The third step of this simple five-step process is to identify and draw the gametes that can be made by each parent of the experiment. The number of possible gametes that can be made by the cross of two parents depends on the parents’ genotypic analysis. If the parent is pure-bred, only one type of gamete can be produced, but two gametes can be produced if the parent is hybrid. One letter only of the genotype is written inside either a sperm or an egg, depending on the sex of the plants. There can either be one or two possible gametes for each parent. By drawing and identifying these gametes, the scientist can easily determine the sex of the parents and those parents’ possible gamete outcomes.

The fourth step of this process is my favorite, and I now know how to execute it correctly.