1. What is genetics?
• Study of heredity
2. What is fertilization?
• Joining of male and female sex cells (gametes)
3. What does it mean for a plant to be
“true breeding?”?
• If plant pollinates itself, it will produce offspring
that are identical to itself
Pollen (male)
Carpel (female)
4. How did Gregor Mendel cross-pollinate pea plants?
Why did he want to do this?
• He put pollen from
one plant on the
flower of another
plant.
• To see what would
happen when plants
with different
characteristics
produced offspring
together.
5. What is a trait? Give an example of one of
your traits.
• Specific characteristic of a living thing.
• Hair color, eye color, height, body shape, etc.
6. What is a hybrid? Why are some
new cars called hybrids?
• Offspring of parents with different traits.
• Hybrid cars are a mix of both gas and electric cars.
7. What is meant by P, F1, and F2 generations? If you
belong to an F2 generation, name two people who are
part of your F1 and P generations.
• P = Parent, F1 = offspring of parents, F2 = offspring of F1.
• If you are F2, your parents are F1 and your grandparents are P.
8. What is a gene?
• Chemical factors that determine traits
• section of DNA that holds genetic code for a
particular trait.
• Ex: a gene for hair color, a gene for eye color, etc.
9. What are alleles? Look at the table at the bottom of
p. 264 and identify four different alleles that Mendel
studied in seeds of pea plants.
• Different forms of a gene for a specific trait.
• Allele for round seeds or wrinkled, yellow seeds or green,
gray seed coat or white, smooth pods or constricted.
Seed
Shape
Seed
Color
Round
Yellow
Seed Coat
Color
Pod
Shape
Pod
Color
Flower
Position
Gray
Smooth
Green
Axial
Tall
Short
Wrinkled
Green
White
Constricted
Yellow
Terminal
Round
Yellow
Gray
Smooth
Green
Axial
Plant
Height
Tall
10. What does an organism look like when it has both a
dominant allele and a recessive allele for the same
trait? Give an example.
• It will show the trait of the dominant allele, not the
recessive one.
• If pea plant has a dominant gene for purple flowers (P)
and a recessive gene for white flowers (p), the flowers
will be purple.
Dominant allele
(purple flowers)
Recessive allele
(white flowers)
11. What is segregation? What happens to alleles
during segregation?
• Separation of alleles
• Alleles get separated
in the formation of
gametes (sex cells).
12. Look at the diagram at the bottom of p. 265. How did
Mendel explain the disappearance of short pea plants in
the F1 generation and their reappearance in the F2
generation?
• The F1 generation had both alleles for short and tall plants.
Since allele for tallness is dominant, all plants were tall.
• Some plants in F2 generation only had alleles for shortness,
so they were short.
P generation
F1 generation
F2 generation
13. Copy the diagram on p. 266 and use it to explain
why only about one fourth of Mendel’s F2 plants were
short while the rest were tall.
• T = tall allele
(dominant), t = short
allele (recessive)
• ¼ plants had TT combo,
so were tall
• ½ plants had Tt combo,
so were tall (T is
dominant)
• ¼ plants had tt combo,
so were short