Mendelian Expression of Genes in Diploid Organisms
A gene is only a DNA code sequence; the slightly different variations of that sequence are called alleles. Alleles can be significantly different and produce different product RNAs.
Combinations of different alleles thus go on to generate different traits through the information flow charted above. For example, if the alleles on homologous chromosomes exhibit a "simple dominance" relationship, the trait of the "dominant" allele shows in the phenotype.
Gregor Mendel pioneered modern genetics. His most famous analyses were based on clear-cut traits with simple dominance. He determined that the heritable units, what we now call genes, occurred in pairs. His tool was statistics: long before the molecular model of DNA was introduced by James D. Watson and Francis Crick.
He is also known to have 'cheated' on his experiments, removing outliers and generally 'tidying' datasets - statistics, and repeating the experiments, shows that his results were just 'too perfect', a point first noted by the Godfather of statistics, RA Fisher, in 1936: http://www.cs.brown.edu/courses/csci1950-l/presentations/REVISED--AFCB%202007%20Course%20Fisher%20and%20Mendel.ppt
Read more about this topic: Phenotypic Trait
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