Historical Figure
Gregor Mendel
1822–1884
Austrian biologist and friar (1822–1884)
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Biography
Gregor Johann Mendel was an Austrian biologist, meteorologist, mathematician, Augustinian friar and abbot of St. Thomas' Abbey in Brno (Brünn), Margraviate of Moravia. Mendel was born in a German-speaking family in the Silesian part of the Austrian Empire and gained posthumous recognition as the founder of the modern science of genetics. Though farmers had known for millennia that crossbreeding of animals and plants could favor certain desirable traits, Mendel's pea plant experiments conducted between 1856 and 1863 established many of the rules of heredity, now referred to as the laws of Mendelian inheritance.
Timeline
The story of Gregor Mendel, told in moments.
Entered the Augustinian Abbey of St. Thomas in Brno. He needed the free room and board to keep studying. The abbot recognized his talent and sent him to the University of Vienna.
Began his pea plant experiments in the monastery garden. Over eight years he grew roughly 29,000 plants, tracking seven traits across generations. He counted every wrinkled and smooth seed by hand.
Published "Experiments on Plant Hybridization." It described dominant and recessive inheritance with mathematical precision. Forty copies were printed. Almost nobody read it.
Died of kidney disease at 61. His successor as abbot burned most of his papers. Mendel's laws weren't rediscovered until 1900, when three separate botanists independently confirmed his work.
In Their Own Words (7)
Of the experiments of previous years, those dealing with Matthiola annua and glabra, Zea, and Mirabilis were concluded last year. Their hybrids behave exactly like those of Pisum. Darwin's statements concerning hybrids of the genera mentioned in The variation of animals and plants under domestication, based on reports of others, need to be corrected in many respects.
Letter VIII, July 3rd, 1870., 1870
It concerns the opinion of Naudin and Darwin that a single pollen grain does not suffice for fertilization of the ovule. I used Mirabilis Jalappa for an experimental plant, as Naudin had done; the result of my experiment is, however, completely different. From fertilizations with single pollen grains, I obtained eighteen well-developed seeds, and from these an equal number of plants, of which ten are already in bloom
Letter VIII, July 3rd, 1870., 1870
I am inclined to regard the separation of parental traits in the progeny of hybrids in Pisum as complete and thus permanent. The progeny of hybrids carries one or the other of the parental traits, or the hybrid form of the two; I have never observed gradual transitions between the parental traits or a progressive approach towards one of them. The course of development consists simply in this; that in each generation the two parental traits appear, separated and unchanged, and there is nothing to indicate that one of them has either inherited or taken over anything from the other
April 18, 1867., 1867
It is willingly granted that by cultivation the origination of new varieties is favored, and that by man's labor many varieties are acquired which, under natural conditions, would be lost; but nothing justifies the assumption that the tendency to formation of varieties is so extraordinarily increased that the species speedily lose all stability, and their offspring diverge into an endless series of extremely variable forms. Were the change in the conditions the sole cause of variability we might expect that those cultivated plants which are grown for centuries under almost identical conditions would again attain constancy.
[10] Experiments with Hybrids of Other Species of Plants, 1865
Experience of artificial fertilization, such as is effected with ornamental plants in order to obtain new variations in colour, has led to the experiments which will here be discussed. The striking-regularity with which the same hybrid forms always reappeared whenever fertilisation took place between the same species induced further experiments to be undertaken, the object of which was to follow up the developments of the hybrids in their progeny.
[1] Introductory Remarks, 1865
Artifacts (15)
Versuche über Pflanzen-Hybriden / von Gregor Mendel ; vorgelegt in den Sitzungen vom 8. Februar und 8. März 1865
Mendel, Gregor 1822-1884
Mendel's Principles of Heredity: A Defence, with a Translation of Mendel's Original Papers on Hybridisation
William Bateson (1861-1926) began his academic career working on variation in animals in the light of evolutionary theory. He was inspired by the rediscovery in 1900 of the 1860s work on plant...
Genetics & Eugenics: A Text-Book for Students of Biology and a Reference Book for Animal and Plant Breeders
This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains...
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