Final answer:
In maternal effect, the mother's genotype influences the offspring's phenotype. Both parents contribute genotypes that determine the offspring's phenotype, with phenotypic traits resulting from the genotype's interaction with the environment. The father's contribution also determines the sex of the offspring, while Mendel's work with monohybrid crosses provides foundational knowledge on how traits are inherited.
Step-by-step explanation:
In maternal effect, the mother's genotype determines offspring phenotype. Both parents' genotypes determine offspring phenotype.
When a sperm and egg fuse, their 23 chromosomes combine to create a zygote with 46 chromosomes. Each parent contributes half of the genetic information carried by the offspring; the resulting physical characteristics, or the phenotype, are a product of the genetic material's interaction, which constitutes the genotype of the individual. Phenotype includes inherited physical characteristics influenced by genetic and environmental factors.
Inheritance of sex chromosomes depicts another aspect of genetics where mothers pass only X chromosomes to their children, making the father responsible for determining the sex of the offspring by passing either an X or a Y chromosome to the child.
Mendel's work with monohybrid crosses further explains genetic inheritance. When fertilization occurs between two true-breeding parents with contrasting traits, such as plant pod color, Mendel observed a 3:1 phenotypic ratio in the F2 generation, which reflects the genetic principle that each parent provides one allele to the offspring. This helps predict the potential outcomes for traits governed by the alleles inherited from each parent.