What is the "Particulate Hypothesis of Inheritance" and "Blending Hypothesis of Inheritance" in genetics?
1 Answer
These are two competing hypotheses explaining how we inherit traits from our parents.
Explanation:
Before the discovery of chromosomes and genes, scientists thought that the traits of two parents blended together to create an intermediate mix of a trait in the offspring; this is the blending hypothesis. However, this did not explain the persistence of diversity among the population. As an example, if you continue to blend different colors of paint together you would eventually end up with one uniform color - there would be no more greens, blues, reds...etc.
The particulate hypothesis was offered by Gregor Mendel who discovered that traits are inherited in discrete units that we now know as genes. Instead of blending, the offspring inherits a version of a gene, called an allele, from each of the parents. Only one allele is expressed depending on a number of factors. In a simplified example, this means that if one parent has blonde hair and the other black, the child may have only one of these colors - not a blend of the two.
