THE MENDELIAN LAW OF DOMINANCE 



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Gregor Johann Mendel planted peas in his garden in Briinn, Austria. He crossed plants 

 showing different characters and produced a variety of hybrids. 



If one of the parents were of a wrinkled-seed variety and one of a 

 smooth-seed variety, all of the next generation would have smooth 

 seeds. If one of the parents had a yellow seed coat and the other 

 had a green seed coat, all of their offspring had yellow seed coats. 

 To get more accurate results, he pollinated artificially the flowers 

 of two varieties and kept them protected from all insects. The 

 seeds from these plants were gathered, planted, and the new 

 plants were carefully watched. Mendel found that the characters 

 did not blend, as was later noted in the Andalusian fowl. One 

 character completely dominated the other character and concealed 

 it. This is called complete dominance. It has been found to occur 

 in many species of plants and animals, and is true for many dif- 

 ferent characters. This is known as Mendel's Law of Dominance. 

 Dominance, as used in studies of heredity, is a condition in which 

 one of a pair of characters will appear in the offspring and hide or 

 mask the other. The character that shows in the offspring is 



