What concept is central to Mendelian genetics?

What concept is central to Mendelian genetics?

• A. The survival of the fittest
• B. Natural selection
• C. Inheritance of traits
• D. Environmental adaptation

Answer: (C)

The central concept of Mendelian genetics is the inheritance of traits, which refers to how genetic information is passed down from parents to offspring. Mendel’s experiments with pea plants illustrated how traits are inherited in predictable patterns, using what are now known as dominant and recessive alleles. He established the foundational principles of heredity, including the law of segregation and the law of independent assortment, which describe how alleles segregate during gamete formation and how different traits are inherited independently of one another. This understanding is critical in genetics because it explains how specific traits can reappear in future generations and how they can be predicted based on parental genotypes. While natural selection and the survival of the fittest describe processes that can influence the prevalence of certain traits within a population over time, they do not directly address the mechanisms of heredity that Mendel uncovered. Environmental adaptation, while important in understanding how organisms respond to their surroundings, is separate from the genetic principles of inheritance that Mendel focused on.

The central concept of Mendelian genetics is the inheritance of traits, which refers to how genetic information is passed down from parents to offspring. Mendel’s experiments with pea plants illustrated how traits are inherited in predictable patterns, using what are now known as dominant and recessive alleles. He established the foundational principles of heredity, including the law of segregation and the law of independent assortment, which describe how alleles segregate during gamete formation and how different traits are inherited independently of one another.

This understanding is critical in genetics because it explains how specific traits can reappear in future generations and how they can be predicted based on parental genotypes. While natural selection and the survival of the fittest describe processes that can influence the prevalence of certain traits within a population over time, they do not directly address the mechanisms of heredity that Mendel uncovered. Environmental adaptation, while important in understanding how organisms respond to their surroundings, is separate from the genetic principles of inheritance that Mendel focused on.