Mendel, Gregor Johann (18221884) Austrian geneticist and monk who discovered the basic laws of heredity, thereby

laying the foundation of modern geneticsalthough the importance of his work was not recognized until after his death. Mendel was born Johann Mendel on July 22, 1822 in Heinzendorf, Austria (now Hyncce in the Czech Republic), the son of a peasant farmer. He studied for two years at the Philosophical Institute in Olmtz (now Olomouc), after which, in 1843, he entered the Augustinian monastery in Brnn, Moravia (now Brno), taking the name Gregor. In 1847 he was ordained a priest. During his religious training, Mendel taught himself a certain amount of science and for a short time he was a teacher of Greek and mathematics at the secondary school in Znaim (now Znojmo) near Brnn. In 1850 he tried to pass an examination to obtain a teaching license but failed, and in 1851 he was sent by his abbot to the University of Vienna to study physics, chemistry, mathematics, zoology, and botany. Mendel left the university in 1853 and returned to the monastery in Brnn in 1854. He then taught natural science in the local technical high school until 1868, during which period he again tried, and failed, to gain a teaching certificate that would have enabled him to teach in more advanced institutions. It was also in the period 185468 that Mendel performed most of his scientific work on heredity. He was elected abbot of his monastery at Brnn in 1868, and the administrative duties involved left him little time for further scientific investigations. Mendel remained abbot at Brnn until his death on January 6, 1884. Mendel began the experiments that led to his discovery of the basic laws of heredity in 1856. Much of his work was performed on the edible pea (Pisum), which he grew in the monastery garden. He carefully self-pollinated and wrapped (to prevent accidental pollination by insects) each individual plant, collected the seeds produced by the plants, and studied the offspring of these seeds. He found that dwarf plants produced only dwarf offspring and that the seeds produced by this second generation also produced only dwarf offspring. With tall plants, however, he found that both tall and dwarf offspring were produced and that only about one-third of the tall plants bred true, from which he concluded that there were two types of tall plants, those that bred true and those that did not. Next he cross-bred dwarf plants with truebreeding tall plants, planted the resulting seeds and then self-pollinated each plant from this second generation. He found that all the offspring in the first generation were tall but that the offspring from the self-pollination of this first generation were a mixture of about one-quarter true-breeding dwarf plants, one-quarter true-breeding tall plants and one-half nontrue-breeding tall plants. Mendel also studied other characteristics in pea plants, such as flower color, seed shape, and flower position, finding that, as with height, simple laws governed the inheritance of these traits. From his findings Mendel concluded that each parent plant contributes a factor that determines a particular trait and that the pairs of factors in the offspring do not give rise to an amalgamation of traits. These conclusions, in turn, led him to formulate his famous law of segregation and law of independent assortment of characters, which are now recognized as two of the fundamental laws of heredity. Mendel reported his findings to the Brnn Society for the Study of Natural Science in 1865 and in the following year he published Experiments with plant hybrids, a paper that summarized his results. But the importance of his work was not recognized at the time, even by the eminent botanist Karl Wilhelm von Ngeli, to whom Mendel sent a copy of his paper. It was not until 1900, when his work was rediscovered by Hugo de Vries, Carl Erich Correns, and Erich Tschermak von Seysenegg, that Mendel achieved fame16 years after his death. Gregor Mendel was an Austrian geneticist who made discoveries relating to heredity and laid the basic groundwork for modern genetics today. He was born in Heinzendorf, Austria in 1822. He studied at a philosophical institute, and in 1943 became a monk. He became a priest in 1947 and then became a

teacher of Greek Mathematics at a secondary school. In 1851 he went to the University of Vienna to study physics, chemistry, mathematics, zoology, and botany. Then until 1968, he taught natural science at another school. Mendels work on heredity mainly used the edible pea plant. He used the pea plant because they could be grown in the monastery garden. He wrapped each plant and self-pollinated it. He then collected the seeds and studied the offspring of these plants. He determined that dwarf plants produce only dwarf offspring. He determined that tall plants can produce both dwarf plants and tall plants. He then cross-bred these plants and determined that the second generation of these plants was one quarter true-breeding dwarf plants, one quarter true-breeding tall plant and one half non-truebreeding tall plants. He also studied some different factors of the pea plant such as flower colour. These studies led him to determine the two laws, the law of segregation and the law of independent assortment. These are now considered to be the fundamental laws of heredity. Mendel published Experiments with plant hybrids in 1865. His work was not. However recognized until after his death.