Gregor Mendel of Mendelian inheritance. Mendel worked with seven characteristics of pea plants: plant height, pod shape and color, seed shape and color, and flower position and color. Taking seed color as an example, Mendel showed that when a true-breeding yellow pea and a true-breeding green pea were cross-bred their offspring always produced yellow seeds. However, in the next generation, the green peas reappeared at a ratio of 1 green to 3 yellow. To explain this phenomenon, Mendel coined the terms “recessive” and “dominant” in reference to certain traits. (In the preceding example, the green trait, which seems to have vanished in
Journal of Heredity Journal of Heredity The Journal of Heredity is a peer-reviewed scientific journal concerned with heredity in a biological sense, covering all aspects of genetics. It is published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the American Genetic Association. The trends in topics that have been published in the journal reflect the history of the discipline of genetics. Early issues included many papers on eugenics, particularly under the editorial leadership of the journal's first two editors-in-chief, Paul Popenoe and R. C. Cook. Emphasis on eugenics in the journal declined throughout the 1940s and 1950s as support for the topic waned in