Why are genes called heriditary units?
1 Answer
The genes are called hereditary units as the offsprings inherit different traits of parents through genes present on chromosomes in male and female gametes.
Explanation:
Mendel proposed Laws of Heredity on the basis of his observations and breeding experiments on pea plant. At that time nothing was known in detail about Cell biology, cell division, genes and chromosomes.
He proposed laws of heredity on theoretical assumptions. The results calculated on the basis of these assumptions matched the observed results. Mendel thus proposed well known laws of Heredity, i.e. Law of segregation and law of independent assortment.
With the advancement of knowledge about Cell Biology , it was established that so called Mendelian factors are nothing but genes located on chromosomes.
Medel's Law of segregation and Law of independent assortment can easily be explained by observing the behavior of chromosomes during meiosis, on which genes are located.
Genes are thus called hereditary units.
