Mendelian Inheritance

Mendelian inheritance is a set of rules that describe how traits are passed from parents to offspring, based on the work of Gregor Mendel in the 19th century. He discovered that traits are determined by "genes," which come in pairs, one inherited from each parent. Traits can be dominant, meaning they will appear if at least one dominant gene is present, or recessive, requiring two recessive genes to show. This framework explains how characteristics like eye color or flower shape can vary in offspring and provides the foundation for modern genetics.