Mendel's Work

    

       Gregor Mendel, a mid nineteenth century Catholic priest, is known as the father of genetics. Mendel's job as a priest was to tend the garden at a monastery. At the garden, he noticed that all pea plants had their own unique traits or characteristics. He observed that most pea plants had traits that were similar to their parents'. Mendel experimented with thousands of pea plants to understand the process of heredity*. 
        One of Mendel's experiments was cross-pollination. Most plants are self-pollinating. The pollen from a flower lands on the pistil of the same flower. In this case, he took the pollen from one plant and brushed it on second plant.    
        Other experiments were the F1 and F2 offspring experiments. Mendel cross-pollinated a purebred* short pea plant with a purebred tall pea plant. The outcome was surprising. All the offspring were tall. It was as if the the short trait just disappeared! After the F1 offspring fully grew, Mendel let them self-pollinate, and to his shock, there was a mix of short and tall pea plants.
         All these experiments and many more contributed to the foundation of genetics*. Unfortunately, Mendel's work got recognized only after his death. Who would have thought that a priest who tended a garden could change science forever?
                                                                                                                                     

*Heredity - the passing of physical characteristics from parents to offspring

*Purebred - offspring of many generations that have the same trait

*Genetics - the scientific study of heredity