Gregor Mendel is considered the father of the discipline of Genetics. It is ironic thathe bears this exposition, because Gregor Mendel never used the term gene or genetics in his life.It was not until 1905, twenty-one year after Mendel’s death, that William Bateson baptizedMendel’s work as genetics. Like many brilliant minds before him, Mendel was ahead of his era;his findings were ignored for nearly thirty years.Gregor was of peasant upbringings; his father was a farmer. He was born on July22,1822, in Heinzendorf (now Hyncice, Czech Republic) and raised in German-speaking Silesia. At the young age of twenty-one, he joined an Austrian order in the Monastery of Brunn,Monrovia. There he became a monk and a high school substitute teacher. Later He attended theUniversity of Vienna, where he studied mathematics and science. It was at the Monastery during his leisure time that he became an amateurscientist. During 1856 to 1861, Mendel raised over 28,000 varieties of edible pea plants (Pisumsativum), which he was testing for the transmission of seven selected traits. He self-fertilizedtheir offspring to discover which of the parent trait they would exhibit. After years of study and research Mendel, published his findings in 1866, thearticle was called “Experiments with Plant Hybrids” which was published in the journal of theBrno Natural History Society. His publishing explained two different laws. The first Law of Segregation stated that there were two hereditary units (later referred toas genes) governing each of the plant’s characteristics, and one of the elements was dominantand if it is present it determines the trait the plant will exhibit. For example, two pea plantscould each have a tallness gene and a shortness gene. If they both contribute the shortness geneto a seed, the progeny, or offspring will be short. However, if one or both contributed a tallnessgene, the progeny will be tall, thus demons...
