Learning outcomes

After studying this course, you should be able to:

• understand that the number of chromosomes is characteristic of each species and can vary enormously between species

• recognise that genetics is based on the concept of the gene as the unit of inheritance

• understand that sexual reproduction always includes two distinctive processes: the production of gametes, which involves meiosis, and fertilisation.

• understand that a particular phenotypic character is determined by the two copies of a gene that an organism possesses and these two copies are identical in a pure-breeding variety

• understand that when organisms with contrasting characters for which they are pure-breeding are crossed, the dominant character appears in the first offspring or first filial generation and the recessive character is masked.