Gregor Johann Mendel
| Gregor Mendel | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Born | Johann Mendel 20 July 1822 Hynčice, Silesia, Austrian Empire (Czech Republic) |
| Died | 6 January 1884 (aged 61) Brno, Austria-Hungary (now Czech Republic) |
| Nationality | Austrian |
| Fields | Genetics |
| Institutions | St Thomas's Abbey |
| Alma mater |
University of Olomouc University of Vienna |
| Known for | Creating the science of genetics |
Gregor Johann Mendel (Czech: Řehoř Jan Mendel; 20 July 1822 – 6 January 1884) (English /ˈmɛndəl/) was a scientist, Augustinian friar and abbot of St. Thomas' Abbey in Brno, Margraviate of Moravia. Mendel was born in a German-speaking family in Silesian part of Austrian Empire (today's Czech Republic) and gained posthumous recognition as the founder of the modern science of genetics. Though farmers had known for centuries 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.
Mendel worked with seven characteristics of pea plants: plant height, pod shape and color, seed shape and color, and flower position and color. With seed color, he showed that when a yellow pea and a green pea were bred together their offspring plant was always yellow. However, in the next generation of plants, the green peas reappeared at a ratio of 1:3. To explain this phenomenon, Mendel coined the terms “recessive” and “dominant” in reference to certain traits. (In the preceding example, green peas are recessive and yellow peas are dominant.) He published his work in 1866, demonstrating the actions of invisible “factors”—now called genes—in providing for visible traits in predictable ways.
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