Lecture 1: Introduction: What Mendel Started

I.                     Why study genetics?

A.                 To identify genes and study their properties

B.                 To study the mechanism of inheritance

C.                To understand how genes lead to traits; how genotype turns into phenotype

D.                To understand how genes and their activities change in time (evolution) and in space (populations).

II.                   The changing face of genetics: impact of genome sequencing

III.                  Mendel's Heritage

IV.               What Mendel found (MendelWeb (http://www.mendelweb.org)]

A.                 Experimental system

1.                  First insight: Picking the correct system

2.                  Second insight: Looking at specific traits 

B.                 Mendel's first experiments.

1.                  Mating P₀ plants (dominant and recessive traits)

2.                  Mating F₁ plants (Third insight: seeking simple mathematical relationships)

3.                  Mating F₂ plants (Fourth insight: examining subsequent progeny)

4.                  Mating further generations

C.                Independent assortment: looking at two and three traits together

D.                Deductions about germ cells.

E.                 Generalization: looking at other plants

F.                 Summary: first and second "laws"

V.                 How correct was Mendel?

VI.               Independent assortment today