How did Mendel's novel approach contribute to his success in describing how traits are inherited?
Since this is not my area of expertise, I searched Google under the key words "Mendel" to get these possible sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregor_Mendel
http://www.accessexcellence.org/RC/AB/BC/Gregor_Mendel.html
http://www.accessexcellence.org/RC/VL/GG/mendel.html
http://www.mendelweb.org/
http://sonic.net/~nbs/projects/anthro201/disc/
In the future, you can find the information you desire more quickly, if you use appropriate key words to do your own search.
I hope this helps. Thanks for asking.
Gregor Mendel's novel approach, which involved the careful and systematic study of pea plants, made significant contributions to the understanding of how traits are inherited.
To understand how Mendel's approach contributed to his success, we need to look at the key steps he followed:
1. Choosing a suitable organism: Mendel chose to work with pea plants because they have easily distinguishable traits, such as flower color, seed shape, and height. This choice enabled him to observe and track the inheritance patterns of specific traits over several generations.
2. Controlling the crosses: Mendel conducted controlled experiments by manually transferring pollen from one plant to another, ensuring precise control over the mating process. By doing so, he could specifically choose the parents with desired traits to pass them on and exclude unwanted traits.
3. Collecting and analyzing data: Mendel diligently recorded the outcomes of each cross and analyzed the resulting patterns. He counted the number of plants displaying different traits (such as tall or short, yellow or green seeds) in successive generations, and noted their ratios.
4. Developing general principles: Based on his observations and analyses, Mendel formulated two fundamental principles: the law of segregation and the law of independent assortment. The law of segregation states that an individual inherits two copies of each gene, one from each parent, and these copies segregate during gamete formation. The law of independent assortment states that the inheritance of one trait is independent of the inheritance of other traits, as long as they are on separate chromosomes.
By meticulously following these steps, Mendel was able to gather substantial evidence and provide a concise and clear explanation of how traits are inherited. His findings laid the foundation for the modern science of genetics, contributing significantly to our understanding of heredity.