Mendel's Principles

Gregor Mendel, a monk, formulated the following principles from observations he made during the cross-breeding of pea plants.

• The Principle of Unit Characters states that individuals pass information on as individual traits.
  
  
• The Principle of Dominance states that some unit characters can mask the expression of others.
  
  
• The Principle of Segregation states that each unit character separates into a different sex cell.
  
  
• The Principle of Independent Assortment states that genes segregate according to chance.