Rebecca Sheehy

SLM 521

Mendelian Genetics

Do you and your siblings look exactly alike? Have you ever wonder why most siblings look dissimilar despite the fact that they have the same parents?

Answers to questions, such as those above, can be traced back to the works of Gregor Mendel and his important discoveries of genetic trait inheritance, or traits passed from parent to offspring. As we begin our new unit on Genetics we start with Mendel, whose findings set up the framework for future scientific work in the field of Genetics.

In this activity you need to go to the site: Pea Soup: The Story of Mendel and read a brief biography of Mendel and Mendel’s Discoveries. As you read complete the following questions:

1. What was Mendel’s occupation?

2.

	G	g
G	GG	Gg
g	Gg	gg

Given the above graph, answer the following questions:

What is the name of this type of graph?

What item was Mendel referring to when he made this graph?

What does the information in the graph mean?

3. Write down any unfamiliar terms and check them in the glossary. If the term is not in the glossary check in the dictionary.

4. Write down any questions that you may have as you are reading.

5. Using the information that you have just learned fill in the graph of a cross between dogs one and two. In the space below the graph explain the genotypes and phenotypes of each dog’s coat color, both parental and offspring, and which of the genes are dominant and recessive.

Dog 1 Dog 2

Bb bb