Mendélienne

Mendélienne refers to the principles of heredity discovered by Gregor Mendel, an Austrian monk and botanist. His meticulous experiments with pea plants, conducted in the mid-19th century, laid the foundation for modern genetics. Mendel's work established that traits are passed down from parents to offspring through discrete units, now known as genes. He formulated several fundamental laws of inheritance.

The Law of Segregation states that each individual possesses two alleles for each trait, and these alleles separate during gamete formation, with each gamete receiving only one allele. The Law of Independent Assortment posits that the alleles of different genes assort independently of one another during gamete formation, meaning the inheritance of one trait does not influence the inheritance of another. His observations also led to the understanding of dominant and recessive alleles, where a dominant allele masks the effect of a recessive allele when both are present.

The term "mendélienne" is often used in a French context to describe traits or patterns of inheritance that follow these basic Mendelian principles. This contrasts with non-Mendelian inheritance, which includes phenomena like incomplete dominance, codominance, polygenic inheritance, and sex-linked inheritance, where the inheritance patterns are more complex than Mendel's initial observations. Understanding mendélienne inheritance is crucial for predicting the likelihood of offspring inheriting specific traits and for studying genetic diseases.