Gregor Mendel

Gregor Mendel, a pioneering figure in genetics, initiated his groundbreaking research on hereditary traits in plant hybrids around 1854, challenging the prevailing notions of inheritance. Contrary to the accepted belief of the time that offspring traits were a mere blend of parental characteristics, Mendel's extensive experiments with pea plants over eight years revealed fundamental principles of genetics. By carefully selecting pea plants with contrasting traits and meticulously analyzing the resulting generations, he formulated the Law of Segregation and the Law of Independent Assortment. These laws proposed that traits are passed from parents to offspring through dominant and recessive genes and that these traits are inherited independently of each other. Mendel's work, initially published in 1866 but largely overlooked during his lifetime, laid the foundation for modern genetics, demonstrating that hereditary traits follow specific statistical laws applicable across living organisms.

 

Link: https://www.nature.com/scitable/topicpage/gregor-mendel-and-the-principles-of-inheritance-593/

-Jonah