"Particular theory of inheritance" was proposed by

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  1. Charles Darwin
  2. Gregor Johann Mendel
  3. Herman Muller
  4. T.H. Morgan

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Option 2 : Gregor Johann Mendel
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The correct answer is Gregor Johann Mendel.

Important Points

  • Gregor Mendel is known as the "father of genetics".
  • Particulate Theory of Inheritance - traits are inherited as "particles", offspring receive a "particle" from each parent.
  • Mendel's Experiments:
    • Mendel chose pea plants as his experimental subjects, mainly because they were easy to cross and showed a variety of contrasting traits (purple vs white flowers, tall vs short stems, round vs wrinkled seeds).
    • He crossed a true-breeding plant with a plant of the opposite trait (purple x white). He called this the Parental (P) generation.
  • Mendel established three principles (or Laws) from his research:
    • The Principle of Dominance and Recessiveness - one trait is masked or covered up by another trait.
    • Principle of Segregation - the two factors (alleles) for a trait separate during gamete formation.
    • Principle of Independent Assortment - factors of a trait separate independently of one another during gamete formation, another way to look at this is, whether a flower is purple has nothing to do with the length of the plant's stems - each trait is independently inherited.

Additional Information

Charles Darwin
  • Charles Robert Darwin, a British naturalist, and biologist knew for his theory of evolution and his understanding of natural selection.
  • In 1859, he published his landmark book, On the Origin of Species.
  • Darwin’s theory of evolution and the process of natural selection later became known simply as “Darwinism”.
Gregor Johann Mendel
  • Father of modern genetics.
  • He discovered the fundamental laws of inheritance through his work on pea plants
  • Mendel's laws of inheritance include the law of dominance, the law of segregation, and the law of independent assortment.
Herman Muller
  • He studied the hereditary characteristics of fruit flies and, in 1927, discovered that the number of genetic mutations observed in fruit flies increased when they were exposed to x-rays.
  • The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1946 was awarded to him "for the discovery of the production of mutations using X-ray irradiation."
T.H. Morgan
  • He is an American zoologist and geneticist, famous for his experimental research with the fruit fly (Drosophila) by which he established the chromosome theory of heredity.
  • Thomas Hunt Morgan was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1933, for his discovery of the white-eyed mutation in the fruit fly, Drosophila.
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