Life and Work of Gregor Mendel

Life and Work of Gregor Mendel

July 20, 1822-Johann Mendel was born to Anton and Rosine Mendel in Heizendorf, Austria. Mendel was the only son of a peasant farmer having an older sister and a younger sister. Mendel grew up on a farm that had been in his family for over 130 years. In his early years, young Gregor worked as a simple gardener and studied beekeeping. He attended the Philosophical Institute in Olomouc from 1840 to 1843. Escaping from the ravishing claws of poverty, Mendel turned to the Priesthood, seeing this as a way to get a good, free education. Mendel entered the Augustinian Abbey of St Thomas in Brno in 1843. Born Johann Mendel, he took the name Gregor upon entering monastic life. He was later sent to the University of Vienna, in 1851 to study. He then returned to his abbey in 1853 as a teacher mainly in physics.
Inspired by both his professors and colleagues at the monastery, Mendel started studying different variations in plants; he conducted most of his research in the garden of his monastery. In 1856, Mendel launched an ambitious series of experiments with Pisum sativum—the garden pea. Eight years and approximately 28,000 pea plants later, Mendel published the results of his grand experiment. Mendel’s’ methods were so advanced and his results so groundbreaking that no one realized how his discovery would eventually revolutionize science. His studies showed that showed that one in four pea plants had purebred recessive alleles (tt), two out of four were hybrid (depending on the parents, there are a number of different types of hybrids) and one out of four were purebred dominant (TT).




Pea Experiment:
Mendel began by identifying seven pairs of distinct traits found among garden peas:

-Seed color (yellow or green)
-Seed shape (smooth or wrinkled)
-Pod color (yellow or green)
-Pod shape (inflated or pinched)
-Flower color (purple or white)
-Flower position (axial or terminal)
-Stem height (tall or short)

For two years, he grew different types of peas...