Mendelian Inheritance

Gregor Mendel was a phenomenal scientist of the nineteenth century. Actually a Monk by profession he is considered the founder of modern genetics. In the 1850-60s, in the garden of his monastery he performed systematic hybridization experiments with the Pea plant over successive generations (second - F2, third - F3, etc.). Through these experiments he was able to conclude that traits get inherited by progenies in the form of discrete traits with a perfectly binary (either/ or) characteristic from the ancestors, as opposed to the then existing notion of a blending of traits. 

The following are the laws of Mendelian inheritance:

• Law of Segregation:  During gamete (sperm or egg cell) formation, allele pairs separate out at random & only one of the alleles are carried by each gamete for each gene.
• Law of Independent Assortment: Genes for different traits segregate independently of other pairs of alleles during the formation of gametes.
• Law of Dominance: Some alleles are dominant while others are recessive. When present the dominant ones dominate.

Where,

 Human body is

  made of -> Cells                              
                                                                  (Building block of life, contain
                                                                       biomolecules such as Protein, DNA)

         containing --> Chromosomes            
                                                                 (One DNA Molecule + some proteins
                                                                       in the cell's nucleus, double helix
                                                                       shape, 46 in humans: 23 each
                                                                       inherited from either parent)

                             having     ---> Genes                     
                                                                  (Code to synthesize proteins
                                                                       & biocomponents, 2 Alleles or
                                                                        variant forms of a trait,
                                                                        one inherited per parent)

                                     that get coded to ----> Proteins   
                                                                 (Large biomolecules of amino acid
                                                                       chains, participate in vast variety
                                                                       of cellular processes & biological
                                                                       functions, metabolic reactions,
                                                                       signaling, etc. Exist within & get
                                                                       recycled by the cells)
                                                 
While the findings of Mendel were not popular initially, they were re-discovered almost half a century later. Though Mendel limited the experiments to traits that were governed by a single gene, the results were significant. These helped formed our understanding of genetics & heredity (genes) that continue to this day.