NEET BIOLOGY

Detailed explanation-1: -Our modern understanding of how traits may be inherited through generations comes from the principles proposed by Gregor Mendel in 1865. However, Mendel didn’t discover these foundational principles of inheritance by studying human beings, but rather by studying Pisum sativum, or the common pea plant.

Detailed explanation-2: -However, Austrian monk Gregor Mendel was unconvinced with traditional explanations of how traits were passed from one generation to another. Between 1856 and 1863, Mendel decided to try and work out the principles of heredity himself, with the assistance of the humble garden pea (Pisum sativum L.).

Detailed explanation-3: -Gregor Mendel, through his work on pea plants, discovered the fundamental laws of inheritance. He deduced that genes come in pairs and are inherited as distinct units, one from each parent. Mendel tracked the segregation of parental genes and their appearance in the offspring as dominant or recessive traits.

Detailed explanation-4: -In this experiment, Mendel took two pea plants of opposite traits (one short and one tall) and crossed them. He found the first generation offspring were tall and called it F1 progeny. Then he crossed F1 progeny and obtained both tall and short plants in the ratio 3:1.

Detailed explanation-5: -Mendel worked with seven characteristics of pea plants: plant height, pod shape and color, seed shape and color, and flower position and color. Taking seed color as an example, Mendel showed that when a true-breeding yellow pea and a true-breeding green pea were cross-bred their offspring always produced yellow seeds.