Processing math: 100%
Skip to main content
Library homepage
 

Text Color

Text Size

 

Margin Size

 

Font Type

Enable Dyslexic Font
Biology LibreTexts

10: Patterns of Inheritance

( \newcommand{\kernel}{\mathrm{null}\,}\)

  • 10.1: Introduction
    Genetics is the study of heredity. Johann Gregor Mendel set the framework for genetics long before chromosomes or genes had been identified, at a time when meiosis was not well understood. Mendel selected a simple biological system and conducted methodical, quantitative analyses using large sample sizes. Because of Mendel’s work, the fundamental principles of heredity were revealed.
  • 10.2: Mendel’s Experiments
    Working with garden pea plants, Mendel found that crosses between parents that differed for one trait produced F1 offspring that all expressed one parent’s traits. The traits that were visible in the F1 generation are referred to as dominant, and traits that disappear in the F1 generation are described as recessive. When the F1 plants in Mendel’s experiment were self-crossed, the F2 offspring exhibited the dominant trait or the recessive trait in a 3:1 ratio, confirming that the recessive trait
  • 10.3: Laws of Inheritance
    Mendel postulated that genes (characteristics) are inherited as pairs of alleles (traits) that behave in a dominant and recessive pattern. Alleles segregate into gametes such that each gamete is equally likely to receive either one of the two alleles present in a diploid individual. In addition, genes are assorted into gametes independently of one another. That is, in general, alleles are not more likely to segregate into a gamete with a particular allele of another gene.
  • 10.4: Extensions of the Laws of Inheritance
    According to Mendel’s law of independent assortment, genes sort independently of each other into gametes during meiosis. This occurs because chromosomes, on which the genes reside, assort independently during meiosis and crossovers cause most genes on the same chromosomes to also behave independently. When genes are located in close proximity on the same chromosome, their alleles tend to be inherited together. This results in offspring ratios that violate Mendel's law of independent assortment.
  • 10.E: Patterns of Inheritance (Exercises)

Thumbnail: Man and a woman in a brown grass field holding a little girl in the air lovingly. (CC0 License; Hana El Zohiry, via Unsplash)


10: Patterns of Inheritance is shared under a CC BY license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Katherine Harker (Citrus College).

  • Was this article helpful?

Support Center

How can we help?