Gregor Johann Mendel was born in 1822 in Heinzendorf, Austria. He was an Augustinian monk, mathematician and botanist. Mendel is known for laying the foundation for the science of genetics.
Mendel discovered how traits were passed on from one generation to the next. Before his time, it was believed that the traits from both parents were ‘blended’ and passed down in a child. Mendel discovered that traits were not blended but passed on intact, in discrete units, from one generation to the next. Mendel conducted experiments on the life cycles of around 29,000 pea plants over eight years. He studied seven different features or traits found in pea plants, such as pod shape and colour, flower position and colour, seed shape and colour and plant height.
He noted that when a yellow pea plant and a green pea plant were cross-bred, their offspring always produced yellow seeds. However in the next generation, the green colour appeared in the ratio 1 green to 3 yellow. Mendel explained this phenomenon by saying that the green pea plant had ‘recessive’ traits and the yellow pea plant had ‘dominant’ traits. He outlined two laws called the Law of Segregation and the Law of Independent Selection, also called ‘Mendel’s laws of inheritance’, to explain his findings.
He published his findings in 1866 saying that ‘invisible factors’ were responsible for the traits of an organism. We now know that these invisible factors are called genes. Mendel established many of the rules of heredity and is known as the ‘Father of Genetics’.
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