Chapter 12, Problem 13STP

Summary Introduction

To explain:

The reason why Mendel’s work preceded the search for molecules involved in inheritance.

Introduction:

The study of heredity is called genetics. Gregor Mendel was a mathematician whose experiments with garden pea plants gave insight into the inheritance of traits. He developed the law of segregation and law of independent assortment.

Answer to Problem 13STP

Mendel’s work concluded that inheritance follows certain patterns. This led to the discovery of factors/ genes which were responsible for these patterns. Later it was discovered that traits are controlled by genes located on chromosomes.

Explanation of Solution

For many years people noticed that some characteristics are inherited from generation to generation. It was not until mid- nineteenth century that Mendel carried out studies on heredity.

Mendel studied how some characteristics are passed from parent to offspring while others do not. Heredity is passing on of characteristics from parent to offspring. These characteristics are known as traits. He was the first person to predict how traits are transferred from one generation to the next.

Mendel concluded that each organism has two factors that control each trait. His study of inheritance was based on experiments on pea plants but the hereditary puzzle was not solved as the molecules involved in inheritance were not yet known.

Later when chromosomes were discovered through development of modern technologies, it was known that genes are the factors that control each trait.

Hence, after Mendel’s work was rediscovered in the 1900s, scientists began to search for the molecule involved in inheritance.