Mendelian inheritance

Mendelian inheritance describes how allele pairs segregate into reproductive cells and how alleles at different genes assort independently, producing predictable patterns of inheritance.

Law of segregation: Each diploid organism’s two alleles for a gene separate during gamete formation, so each gamete receives one. This is the rule that transmits one allele of each pair to each offspring.
Gene: A gene is a DNA sequence that contributes to a functional product or regulated biological trait. Mendelian patterns track alternative forms of genes across generations.
Incomplete dominance: Incomplete dominance occurs when a heterozygote has an intermediate phenotype between the two homozygotes. Its heterozygote phenotype differs from the dominant-recessive pattern often used in Mendelian examples.
Gregor Mendel: Gregor Mendel was a nineteenth-century scientist whose pea-plant experiments established foundational laws of inheritance. His controlled crosses revealed predictable patterns behind trait transmission.
Independent assortment: Alleles of different genes assort independently into gametes when the genes are unlinked or sufficiently far apart. This second Mendelian law predicts combinations of alleles across genes.
Allele: An allele is one of the alternative forms of a genetic sequence at a particular genomic location. The inheritance rules describe how alternative alleles pass from parents to offspring.
Codominance: Codominance occurs when both alleles in a heterozygote contribute distinctly to the phenotype. Both inherited alleles are visible rather than one masking the other.
Mendel's pea plant experiments: Mendel’s pea experiments crossed plants with contrasting traits and counted their offspring across generations. These experiments supplied the numerical evidence for segregation and independent assortment.
Meiosis: Meiosis is a cell-division process that produces haploid reproductive cells from diploid cells. Chromosome separation during meiosis provides the cellular basis for allele segregation.
Genotype: A genotype is the genetic constitution of an organism, or the allele combination at specified loci. Mendelian crosses predict offspring genotypes before their traits are observed.

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