Images Dated 14th October 1998

Computer artwork of Mendels First Law

Mendel's First Law. Computer artwork of Mendel's First Law, the genetic law of segregation. It was formulated by the Austrian botanist Gregor Johann Mendel (1822-1884), top left, after breeding garden peas (Pisum sp.). Here violet and white flowered parents produce a first generation (F1) with violet flowers. Self-pollinating these gives a 3:1 ratio of violet to white flowers (F2). Each parent has a pair of alleles controlling flower colour. In reproduction, one allele from each parent is randomly picked to help form a daughter plant. The allele for violet flowers is dominant and "masks" all the white alleles in F1. However in F2, 1/4 of the plants have two white alleles

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