• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer
Zippy Facts Logo

Zippy Facts

Interesting Random Facts

  • Animals
  • Culture
  • Firsts
  • Food
  • Geography
  • Health
  • History
  • Inventions
  • Language
  • Mythology
  • Odds
  • People
  • Religion
  • Science
  • Space
  • Universe
  • World
You are here: Home / Science / What Are Gregor Mendel’s Laws of Heredity and When Was the Significance of Mendel’s Work Rediscovered?

What Are Gregor Mendel’s Laws of Heredity and When Was the Significance of Mendel’s Work Rediscovered?

February 19, 2020 by Karen Hill

What Are Gregor Mendel’s Laws of Heredity and When Was the Significance of Mendel’s Work Rediscovered?

Gregor Mendel summarized his findings in three laws now known as Mendel’s laws of heredity.

The first is called the law of segregation.

It states that offspring receive a pair of genes for each inherited trait, one gene from each of its parents.

These pairs separate, or segregate, randomly when the offspring’s genes are formed. Thus, a parent hands down only one gene of each pair to its offspring.

The second law is called the law of independent assortment.

It states that offspring inherit each of its traits independent of other traits because they are sorted separately.

This law was later shown not to always be true, when American geneticist Thomas Hunt Morgan discovered that two or more genes located very closely on a reproductive cell can be inherited together.

The third law is the law of dominance.

It states that when offspring inherit two different genes for a trait, one gene will be dominant and the other will be recessive.

The trait of the dominant gene will appear in the offspring.

The significance of Mendel’s work in genetics was not recognized until the turn of the 20th century.

Related Facts

  • Who Discovered Heredity and How does Heredity pass traits and characteristics from one generation to the next?
  • How Are You Like Your Parents?
  • How Were Gregor Mendel’s Laws of Heredity Simultaneously Rediscovered In 1900 By Three Scientists?
  • Who Was Gregor Mendel and How Did Gregor Mendel Discover the Science of Genetics?
  • What Genetic Experiments Did Gregor Mendel Conduct and Why Did Mendel Study Inheritance In Pea Plants?
  • Who Discovered the Function of Chromosomes and What is the relationship between Chromosomes and Genes?

Filed Under: Science

About Karen Hill

Karen Hill is a freelance writer, editor, and columnist. Born in New York, her work has appeared in the Examiner, Yahoo News, Buzzfeed, among others.

Previous Post: « Why Did George Washington Carver Find Over 300 Uses For Peanuts and What Products Did He Create From Peanuts?
Next Post: How Were Gregor Mendel’s Laws of Heredity Simultaneously Rediscovered In 1900 By Three Scientists? »

Footer

Follow

  • Facebook
  • Flickr
  • GitHub
  • Google+
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Medium
  • Pinterest
  • StumbleUpon
  • Tumblr
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Categories

Accomplishments Animals Culture Firsts Food Geography Health History Inventions Language Mythology Odds People Religion Science Space Universe World Your Body

About

Zippy Facts empowers the world by serving educational content that is accessible to everyone.

A tribute to growing up, zippyfacts.com showcases interesting and unusual facts about the world.

Our mission is to use technology to facilitate knowledge transfer and sharing.

Copyright © 2020 Zippy Facts

  • About Us
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy