Download Gregor Mendel and Genetics Review

Gregor Mendel and Genetics
Review
At the end of this unit, students should be able to answer the following
questions:
 What is the blending theory of inheritance? Why did Mendel
question this theory?
 List the seven characteristics that Mendel investigated in pea
plants.
 How did Mendel control pollination in pea plants?
 Describe in general terms Mendel’s first set of experiments.
 What was Mendel investigating with his second set of
experiments? What was the outcome?
 State Mendel’s two laws.
 Assume you are investigating the inheritance of stem length in
pea plants. You cross-pollinate a short-stemmed plant with a
long-stemmed plant. All of the offspring have long stems.
Then, you let the offspring self-pollinate. Describe the stem
lengths you would expect to find in the second generation of
offspring.
 If a purple-flowered, short-stemmed plant is crossed with a
white-flowered, longstemmed plant, would all of the purpleflowered offspring also have short stems? Why or why not?
 If Darwin knew of Mendel’s work, how might it have
influenced his theory of evolution? Do you think this would
have affected how well Darwin’s work was accepted?
 Explain Mendel’s laws in genetic terms, that is, in terms of
chromosomes, genes, and alleles.
 Explain the relationship between genotype and phenotype. How
can one phenotype result from more than one genotype?