5.3 Mendelian Genetics

Explain the inheritance of genes and traits as described by Mendel’s laws.

• Mendel’s laws of segregation and independent assortment can be applied to genes that are on different chromosomes.
• In most cases, fertilization involves the fusion of two haploid gametes, restoring the diploid number of chromosomes and increasing genetic variation in populations by creating new combinations of alleles in the zygote.
  • i. Rules of probability can be applied to analyze the passing of single-gene traits from parent to offspring.
  • ii. Monohybrid, dihybrid, and test crosses can be used to determine whether alleles are dominant or recessive.
  • iii. An organism’s genotype is the set of alleles inherited for one or more genes by an individual organism. An organism’s genotype can be homozygous or heterozygous for each gene.
  • iv. An organism’s phenotype is the observable expression of the inherited traits.