Biology 2e is designed to cover the scope and sequence requirements of a typical two-semester biology course for science majors. The text provides comprehensive coverage of foundational research and core biology concepts through an evolutionary lens. Biology includes rich features that engage students in scientific inquiry, highlight careers in the biological sciences, and offer everyday applications. The book also includes various types of practice and homework questions that help students understand—and apply—key concepts. The 2nd edition has been revised to incorporate clearer, more current, and more dynamic explanations, while maintaining the same organization as the first edition. Art and illustrations have been substantially improved, and the textbook features additional assessments and related resources.

By the end of this section, you will be able to do the following:

Explain the relationship between genotypes and phenotypes in dominant and recessive gene systems
Develop a Punnett square to calculate the expected proportions of genotypes and phenotypes in a monohybrid cross
Explain the purpose and methods of a test cross
Identify non-Mendelian inheritance patterns such as incomplete dominance, codominance, recessive lethals, multiple alleles, and sex linkage

By the end of this section, you will be able to do the following:

Explain Mendel’s law of segregation and independent assortment in terms of genetics and the events of meiosis
Use the forked-line method and the probability rules to calculate the probability of genotypes and phenotypes from multiple gene crosses
Explain the effect of linkage and recombination on gamete genotypes
Explain the phenotypic outcomes of epistatic effects between genes

By the end of this section, you will be able to do the following:

Describe the scientific reasons for the success of Mendel’s experimental work
Describe the expected outcomes of monohybrid crosses involving dominant and recessive alleles
Apply the sum and product rules to calculate probabilities

This collection of publications about genetics includes a unique approach to illustrate a genetics timeline. Important genetic events are correlated with other historical events. The book format allows you to scroll through history.

This pathway explores how we inherit our phenotypes and the origin of genetic diseases.

This pathway provides an introduction to heredity and how the biological process of meiosis leads to genetic diversity. The foundational concepts of Mendelian genetics are also reviewed. For a deeper look at this topic, we recommend the pathways Meiosis and Sexual Reproduction, Mendel's Experiments and Heredity and Modern Understandings of Inheritance from the OpenStax textbook Biology for AP® Courses.