Did you know pea plants helped uncover genetic secrets?
History of genetics
Did you know pea plants helped uncover genetic secrets?
Imagine you're a farmer who wants to predict the traits of your next pea crop. You notice that some plants consistently produce yellow peas, while others always yield green peas.
Gregor Mendel discovered that traits are passed down through discrete units, called genes, which he called "factors." These factors exist in pairs and segregate independently during reproduction.
Example
If you cross a yellow pea plant with a green pea plant, the first generation (F1) will all have yellow peas because the yellow trait is dominant.
Remember this
Mendel's principle of inheritance explains why certain traits appear consistently in offspring, revealing the genetic blueprint of organisms.
Text adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
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