Gregor Mendel developed the model of heredity that now bears his name by experiments on various characterstics of pea plants: height (tall vs. Short); seed color (yellow vs. Green); seat coat (smooth vs. wrinkled), etc. The following explanation uses the tall/short trait. The other traits Mendel studied can be substituted for tall and short.
Mendel started out with plants that "bred true". That is, when tall plants were self-pollinated (or cross-pollinated with others like them), plants in following generations were all tall; when the short plants were self-pollinated (or cross- pollinated with others like them) the plants in following generations were all short.
Mendel found that if true breeding Tall [T] plants are crossed (bred) with true breeding short [t] plants, all the next generation of plants, called F1, are all tall.
Next, he showed that self-pollinated F1 plants (or cross- pollinated with other F1 plants) produce an F2 generation with 3/4 of the plants tall and 1/4 short.
- A. 1/4 of the F2 generation are short plants, which produce only short plants in the F3 generation, if they are self- pollinated (or crossed with other short F2 plants;) these F2 plants breed true.
- B, 1/4 of the F2 generation (1/3 of the tall plants) are tall plants that produce only tall plants in the F3 generation, if they are self-pollinated; these tall F2 plants breed true.
- C. 1/2 of the F2 generation (2/3 of the tall plants) are tall plants that produce 1/4 short plants and 3/4 tall plants in the next [F3] generation, if they are self-pollinated. This is the same proportion of tall to short that F1 plants produce.
