Objectives

Figure 1. A field of wheat stretches to the horizon while neighboring weeds produce offspring for future invasions. (Image credit: A. Kohmetscher)

After reading this lesson you should be able to..

  1. Describe how plant breeders can create families with new combinations of traits and make predictions about the inheritance of traits. [Covered in the sections Super Power through Segregation and Monogenic Characters.]
  2. Outline the experimental approach Mendel used to propose the idea that genes exist, control traits, and are inherited in predictable ways. [Mendel's Peas]
  3. Compare the methods used by Mendel and Punnett to predict trait inheritance. [Punnett and His Square]
  4. Justify the application of gene segregation principles to select plants that will create the future varieties for farmers to grow.  [Back to the Wheat Breeding Field]

Copyright 2013

This project was supported by the National Research Initiative Competitive Grants CAP project 2011-68002-30029 from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture.

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