Who was Gregor Mendel?
- In a monastery, in Austria, there was a monk named Gregor Mendel. He was the pioneer of genetic studies who studied pea
- In the garden of the monastery, he planted several pea plants and matched different characteristics to study
- The pea plants had many variations like different seed colours and length of the
- After many years, he concluded several things about the pea
- In the year 1865, he wrote his paper titled Experiments in Plant Hybridization.
- Mendel realized that there was a certain pattern of plant reproduction in all his experiments. These observations later become his famous
What are chromosomes?
Cell, nucleus, chromosomes and DNA
- A cell contains a nucleus which has a set of chromosomes containing the genetic information, Deoxyribonucleic Acid (DNA).
- DNA is made up of bases which encode specific information for the making of proteins. The bases are joined to several other bases in a specific
- When the bases go against the standard pattern, it is called a mutation.
- The two bases that join each other are called a base
- Mutations can sometimes affect one base pair, and other times an entire segment. When it affects an entire segment, several base pairs will
Base Pair
- So, the bases are the basic fundamental units of a
- They join some other base and form a base Several base pairs form a double-helical structure which looks like a ladder called the DNA molecule.
DNA Molecule
Chromosome
- DNA strands when tightly wound and coiled will form a chromosome.
- The chromosome has two individual strands joined at the centre. Each strand is called a chromatid.
- Two chromatids join at a point in the centre, called the centromere, to form a single chromosome.
