Mendel - Topic 3 - Paper 1

Question 1

Name the monk who experimented on pea plants

Answer 1

Gregor Mendel

Question 2

Describe Mendel’s pea plant experiment

Answer 2

Crossed a tall and a dwarf pea plant - offspring were all tall
The crossed two of these tall offspring - 3 offspring were produced for every 1 dawrf one overall

Question 3

What did Mendel’s pea plant experiment show?

Answer 3

The height characteristics of pea plants were determined by separately inherited “hereditary units” from each parent
with the 3:1 ratio of tall:dwarf offspring showing that the “hereditary unit” for tall offspring was dominant over the unit for dwarf plants

Question 4

Besides height of pea plants, which other characteristics did Mendel experiment with

Answer 4

Flower colour - purple dominant over white

The discovery of offspring of pea plants to produce either purple or white flowers went against the belief that the colours would blend

Question 5

Give the conclusions of Mendel’s pea plant experiments

Answer 5

Characteristics determined by seperetly inherited “hereditary units”, one unit unchanged from each parent which can either be dominant or recessive
If an individual has both a dominant and recessive unit, the dominant characteristic will be expressed

Question 6

Mendel experimented on which plants

Answer 6

Pea plants

Question 7

Mendel referred to genes as what?

Answer 7

“hereditary units”

19th century scientists didn’t knwo about genes or DNA then

Question 8

Why wasn’t Mendel’s work widely accepted in his time?

Answer 8

There was no knowledge of the mechanisms behind his findings

3.11B