Mendelian vs non Mendelian genetics

Welcome! I'm really looking forward to diving into the fascinating world of genetics with you.

To tailor this session, could you tell me a bit about your background in biology? Are you currently studying for a specific course, or is this for personal interest?

This is just for my own personal interest

It is great to have you here! Genetics is an incredibly rewarding topic to explore simply out of curiosity, as it explains so much about how we and the living world around us came to be. Since we are starting from the beginning, let's take a quick look at where our journey will take us.

Your path

Defining Non-Mendelian Inheritance

Comparing Mendelian vs. Non-Mendelian Patterns

To kick things off, let's define what we actually mean by . At its core, this refers to a simple, highly predictable pattern of how traits are passed down from parents to offspring, governed by rules discovered long before anyone even knew what DNA was.

Continue to Mendel's experiments with pea plants

To understand how Mendel cracked the code of inheritance, we have to look at his choice of partner in science: the humble garden (Pisum sativum). This was not a random choice; Mendel picked them because they were the perfect biological system for a controlled experiment.

Mendel chose pea plants because they grow quickly, produce lots of offspring, and can easily self-pollinate or be cross-pollinated by hand. Most importantly, they had distinct, "either-or" traits with no middle ground. For instance, the seeds were either smooth or wrinkly, and the flowers were either purple or white. This made it incredibly easy to track how traits skipped or traveled through generations without getting muddy.

Pea flower anatomy during Mendel's cross-pollination process.

By physically snipping away the pollen-producing parts of one flower and dusting it with pollen from another, Mendel could act as a genetic matchmaker and know exactly which parent plants produced which seeds.