Arts

• How did Mendel’s approach to answering scientific questions differ from that of his contemporaries' Mendel tried to track the transmission of certain genes rather than specific phenotypes. What really separated him apart from other people was that he worked very carefully to observe and manipulate the matings between pairs of plants. On top of all that, Mendel used math with his analysis. He used math to calculate the ratios of offspring and their traits. During that time, using math in conjunction with such studies was unheard of. • How did his novel approach contribute to his success in describing how traits are inherited' I think that since Mendel decided to use peas for his experiments, he gained quite the amount of advantages. Peas tend to have short generation times which would lead to him being able to study multiple plants at once. He easily manipulated the reproduction between the plants giving him the opportunity to view the different traits of each plant such as flower color or the shape of the seeds. • What advantages did he enjoy by choosing to study the garden pea' Some of the advantages that Mendel enjoyed by choosing to study the garden pea was that they could easily be grown in large numbers, the reproduction of which could easily be manipulated and that due to the reproductive organs of the plant, they could self-pollinate or cross pollinate with another. • Piecing It Together on p. 78 of the text describes the six major concluding principles Mendel hypothesized from his work. Describe three of them. 1. Mendel’s Law of Segregation, states that alleles of genes separate when gametes are formed. This would apply to the segregation of the alleles of one gene. 2. Mendel’s Law of Independent Assortment stats that when more than 2 genes are considered at the same time. And that the alleles of one gene are passed on to the offspring differently from the alleles of the other genes. 3. Mendel also states that some genes may show dominance over another gene. In other words, the dominant allele comes from a heterozygous while the other, recessive allele is masked.