Simple Inheritance in Animals and Plants: Mendel and DNA Flashcards
Who is Gregor Mendel?
an Austrian monk
What did he discover?
basic principles of inherited factors
What do we now call these ‘factors’?
genes
What type of plant did he use in his experiment?
pea plant
What did he do?
- cross-pollinated smooth yellow plant with wrinkly green plant
- self-pollinated all-yellow plants from parent plants
What did he find?
- yellow completely dominated green; smooth dominated wrinkly
- ratio of 3:1 of yellow:green plants and round:wrinkly
What conclusions did he draw from his experiment?
- Law of Segregration: offspring inherit one genetic allele from each parent
- Law of Independent Assortment: characteristics of offspring is determined by separately inherited genes
- Law of Dominance: hereditary units (genes) are either dominant or recessive
Why was Mendel’s theory not accepted in his lifetime?
- scientists didn’t know about genes and chromosomes
- didn’t have a scientific journal
What is a gene?
small section of DNA
What does DNA stand for?
deoxybribonucleic acid
What is DNA?
genetic code using bases to code an amino acid to make a specific protein
- this determines what type of cell it is
How can people be identified by their DNA?
everyone has unique DNA (except identical twins)
- they can be identified by DNA fingerprinting
Where is DNA fingerprinting used?
- forensic science
- paternity testing (checking who the father is)
What type of structure does DNA have?
double helix structure
