Overview

In the 1860s, in an Augustinian monastery garden, Gregor Mendel (1822-1884) carried out a systematic experimental analysis of plant hybridization and inheritance patterns. Although Mendel published an account of his work and attempted to communicate with leading naturalists of his day, his work was essentially ignored for over 30 years. At the beginning of the twentieth century, however, Mendel and his laws were "rediscovered" by Hugo Marie de Vries, Karl Franz Joseph Correns, and Erich Tschermak von Seysenegg, firmly attaching Mendel's name to the basic laws of genetics. William Bateson, who came close to rediscovering Mendel's laws through his own experiments, became one of the leading advocates of Mendelian genetics.

Background

After exploring various animal and plant systems, Mendel conducted studies of 34 different strains of peas and selected 22 kinds for further experiments...