gregor mendel

Mendel is known as the father of genetics before his time people believed characteristics were passed on they were mixed like paint so that the offspring would have an intermediate form of a certain characteristic.

from mendel's observations he noticed this was not always the case so he carried out many experiments using pea plants.

Tall plants x short plants

(1st generation) all tall plants

(from 1st generation) tall x tall

(second generation) tall and short in ratio 1:3

As there was no knowledge of genes at this time mendal referred to these characteristics as factors. he came to the conclusion that sometimes factors would dissaperear from generations and the reapear in diffrent generations.

in the 1860s mendels work was not accepted because nothing was known about chromosomes and because it went against the teachings of the church.

• It was not until the mid-nineteenth century that Gregor Mendel, an Austrian monk, carried out important studies of heredity--the passing on of characteristics from parents to offspring.
• Characteristics that are inherited are called traits.
• Mendel was the first person to succeed in predicting how traits are transferred from one generation to the next.
• A complete explanation requires the careful study of genetics--the branch of biology that studies heredity.