Examining Mendel’s “First Law”: Observing Anthocyanin in Brassica rapa

Abstract

The foundation of genetics lies with the principles that Gregor Mendel outlined after his experiments with pea plants where he discovered the relationship between physical characteristics, or phenotype, and genetic traits, or genotype. This experiment aimed to reproduce Mendel’s results with the Brassica rapa plant, noted for it’s fast generation time, and anthocyanin, a purple pigment that can be visually tracked through subsequent generations. It is important for experiments resulting in scientific discovery to be replicable and peer reviewed. Since Mendelian genetics are the foundation of scientific education, including answering questions about evolution and heredity of beneficial or fatal genes, his experiment is a valid and important choice. The hypothesis was that the presence of anthocyanin in Brassica rapa follows Mendel’s laws. By germinating the P1 generation and creating the F1 and F2 generations through pollination the hypothesis was tested. The experimental hypothesis was accepted with ------ error and the null hypothesis that these results were due to chance was rejected.

Introduction

A phenotype provides a clear visual cue for examining the inheritance pattern of genotypes and whether or not these patterns follow Mendelian genetic principles. Gregor Mendel is someone who is often referred to as the “father of genetics,” and discovered important theory pertaining to heredity. He did this by studying traits of pea plants in the garden of a monastery and found two main observations to be supported by the collected data from his experiments about the inheritance of traits in pea plants. As a result of Mendel’s experiments with pea plants, he developed two observations, which together comprise Mendelian genetics. The first observation is The Law of Segregation,