Question

What is the "Particulate hypothesis of inheritance" and "blending hypothesis of inheritance" in genetics?

Answer 1

Hint: This hypothesis is related to the way or pattern the combination of genes is received by the offspring from the parents. These also explain the characteristics passed to the offspring.

Complete answer:
The particulate hypothesis of inheritance was offered by Gregor Mendel. He explained that traits are inherited in discrete units known as genes. A version of a gene called an allele is inherited instead of blending, from each of the parents. Depending on a number of factors only one allele is expressed.
For example, if one parent has blonde hair and the other has black, the child may have any of these colors and not a blend of the two.
Earlier before the discovery of the particulate hypothesis of inheritance the scientists thought that the traits of two parents get blended together to create an intermediate mix of a trait in the offspring, this is known as the blending hypothesis of inheritance. This blending hypothesis of inheritance did not explain the persistence of diversity among the population. For example, if a pair of a tall man and a short woman have a child, this hypothesis predicts their child would have an intermediate height of the parents.

Additional Information:
-Particulate inheritance is a pattern of inheritance that shows that phenotypic traits can be passed from generation to generation through genes.
-The genes can keep their ability to be expressed even if they are not appearing in a descending generation.
-Particulate hypothesis of inheritance explains that the offspring is a combination of both the parents.
-Blending hypothesis of inheritance says that the progeny inherits any characteristic as the average of the parents' values of that characteristic.
-Blending inheritance was discarded after the general acceptance of the particulate hypothesis of Mendelian inheritance during the development of modern genetics after 1900.
-With Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection the blending inheritance was also clearly incompatible.
-According to the blending hypothesis of inheritance the offspring is a blend of both the parents that means alleles would blend together to form a completely new allele.
-The characteristics of the blended offspring are passed onto the next generation and also the variation is washed out over time.

Note:
-According to the particulate hypothesis the characteristics of both the parents are passed on to the next generation as separate entities and also the variation is maintained over time.
-The main difference between blending and particulate inheritance is that in particulate inheritance the offspring is a combination of both parents while in blending inheritance the offspring is a blend of both parents.
-The blending inheritance was dismissed by the widespread acceptance of Gregor Mendel's theory of particulate inheritance.