The Inventor
Gregor Mendel
He is known as an Austrian monk who discovered the basic principles of heredity through experiments with peas. Mendel's observations became the basis for the modern science of genetics and the study of heredity. He is even considered a pioneer in the field of genetics and is referred to as the Father of Genetics.
Johann Mendel was born in 1822 in Heinzendorf in present-day Czechoslovakia. He is the son of Anton Mendel and Rosine Schwirtlich.
Mendel was the only son in his family. He also worked on a family farm with his older sister Veronica and younger sister Theresia. As he grew older, he became interested in gardening and raising bees.
When he was a child, the man known as the Father of Genetics began to attend school in Opava. He then continued his studies at Olomouc University after graduating High School,
There he studied many disciplines, including physics and philosophy. He attended the University from 1840 to 1843.
BECOMING A MONK
At the age of 21, Mendel had run out of money to pay for his studies. One of his teachers, a physicist named Professor Friedrich Franz advised Mendel to join the Abbey of St. Thomas in Brunn as a monk.
That way, Mendel could continue to learn science and not starve. Mendel was actually more interested in science than religion.
St Monastery. Thomas actually has a good reputation when it comes to science lessons. Abbot Franz Cyril Napp was interested in the observation of plants and animals on farms.
While joining the Monastery, Mendel later added the name Gregor to his name. He was no longer called Johann Mendel, but was better known as Gregor Mendel.
In 1846, Mendel took a gardening class given by Professor Franz Diebl at the Institute of Bronnian Philosophy.
TRYING TO BE A SCHOOL TEACHER
Mendel became a priest in 1847. However, he did not enjoy his position. He later tried to become a high school teacher in 1849.
In 1850, at the age of 28, Mendel failed his exams as a requirement to become a high school teacher. A year later, he went to the University of Vienna. There, he studied chemistry, biology and physics.
His goal was to strengthen his knowledge in science subjects so that he could qualify as a high school teacher.
After completing his studies in 1854, he returned to the monastery and became a physics teacher at a school in Brunn.
In 1856 at the age of 34, Mendel again failed his exams as a high school teacher. This time it was because of his illness that prevented him from completing the exam. In the same year, he began to study genetics in plants.
In 1865, Mendel, still interested in physics, founded the Austrian Meteorological Society. In fact, during his lifetime Gregor Mendel published more papers on meteorology than on biology.
In 1866, he published his genetics in biology. Unfortunately, most people who read it do not really understand the importance of what is contained in the paper.
In 1867, at the age of 45, Mendel became Abbot. During his time at Olomouc, Gregor Mendel befriended two university professors Friedrich Franz, a physicist, and Johann Karl Nestler, an agricultural biologist, who was interested in the science of genetics.
Nestler conveyed his interest in plant heredity to Mendel who was also interested in the subject.
The monastery where Mendel lived had a 2 hectare garden. And these two professors encouraged Mendel to pursue his interest in heredity by using the garden for experimentation. Abbot Franz Cyril Napp and Professor Franz Diebl also encouraged him.
In the biography of Gregor Mendel it is mentioned that he was famous for his work on pea plants in the monastery garden. He spent about seven years in planting, and cultivating bean crops.
Through careful record keeping, Mendel's experiments with pea plants became the basis of modern genetics. Gregor Mendel chose the pea plant as his experimental plant for a variety of reasons.
The first is that the pea plant requires very little care and grows quickly. They also have male and female reproductive parts, so they can cross-pollinate or self-pollinate.
Perhaps most importantly, the Mendelian pea plant seems to exhibit one of only two variations of many characteristics. Make the data that it can be much clearer and easier to use.
As for Gregor Mendel's experiment was first, he crossed different varieties of pea plants, then collected and grew the seeds to find out their characteristics.
Next, he crosses offspring with each other (self-fertilization) and grows their seeds to determine their characteristics in the same way.
These crosses were performed many times to establish reliable data trends (more than 5,000 crosses were performed) as a result of the experiment, Mendel discovered the fact that when he crossed two different varieties of pure races together, the result was not a mixture, only one trait would appear.
When tall and short pea plants are crossed, all of their offspring develop into tall growing plants.
When Mendel fertilized his own offspring, the resulting offspring expressed two different traits in a ratio of 3 to 1.
When high-growing offspring are crossed, tall and short pea plants are produced in a ratio of 3 to 1.
GREGOR MENDEL'S TRIAL TABLE
From Mendel's discovery, he drew the conclusion that Organisms have their own factors that determine their features where ‘factor’ is now known as a gene. Furthermore, the organism has two versions of each factor. ‘version’ is now known as the allele.
Each gamete contains only one version of each factor. Sex cells are now known as haploids. Parents contribute equally to hereditary inheritance as a result of fusion between the egg cell and ****** randomly selected for each factor.
One version is dominant over the other and will be fully expressed if any. This later became Mendel's Theory which later gave birth to Mendel's law I and Mendel's Law II.
THE LEGAL HISTORY OF MENDEL I AND II
Despite objections to Mendel's conclusions, Mendel's experiments led to conclusions drawn with Mendel's Law I and Mendel's Law II as follows :
The Law of Separation (Segregation) is when gametes are formed, the alleles are separated so that each gamete carries only one allele for each gene.
The Law of Free Coupling (independent assortment) states that the separation of alleles for one gene occurs independently with other genes.
POPULAR IN THE 1900S
In 1900, three scientists were Carl Correns, Hugo de Vries, and Erich von Tschermak. The three of them independently conducted heredity research to get encouraging results.
However, as they searched the literature, they realized that the results of their findings were nothing new. Their results actually verified the results published by Gregor Mendel 34 years earlier that had been forgotten.
The results of Mendel's research, especially Mendel's Law I and Mendel II's Law, tell scientists about the birth of modern genetics. That's why Mendel deserves to be called the Father of Genetics.
RELATIONSHIP TO EVOLUTIONARY THEORY
Mendel's work was really glimpsed in the 1900s. This happened long after his death. Mendel had unwittingly initiated what he called the Theory of Evolution a mechanism for deriving traits during natural selection.
As a person with strong religious beliefs, Mendel did not believe in evolution during his lifetime. However, his work was added along with the work of Charles Darwin to create the modern synthesis of the Theory of Evolution. And much of Mendel's early work in genetics has paved the way for modern scientists working in the field of microevolution.
GREGOR MENDEL DIED
In 1868, Mendel was elected abbot of the school where he taught for 14 years. But his gradually declining vision made him unable to continue his scientific work as a scientist.
Gregor Mendel died on January 6, 1884, at the age of 61. He was buried in the cemetery of the monastery and his funeral was attended by many people.
