Mendel was born in a German-speaking family in the Silesian part of the Austrian Empire today's Czech Republic and gained posthumous recognition as the founder of the modern science of genetics. Mendel worked with seven characteristics of pea plants: plant height, pod shape and color, seed shape and color, and flower position and color.
Taking seed color as an example, Mendel showed that when a true-breeding yellow pea and a true-breeding green pea were cross-bred, their offspring always produced yellow seeds. However, in the next generation, the green peas reappeared at a ratio of 1 green to 3 yellow. To explain this phenomenon, Mendel coined the terms " recessive " and " dominant " in reference to certain traits. In the preceding example, the green trait, which seems to have vanished in the first filial generation, is recessive, and the yellow is dominant.
He published his work in , demonstrating the actions of invisible "factors"βnow called genes βin predictably determining the traits of an organism.
The profound significance of Mendel's work was not recognized until the turn of the 20th century more than three decades later with the rediscovery of his laws. Erich von Tschermak , Hugo de Vries and Carl Correns independently verified several of Mendel's experimental findings in , ushering in the modern age of genetics. They lived and worked on a farm which had been owned by the Mendel family for at least years [ 11 ] the house where Mendel was born is now a museum devoted to Mendel.
As a young man, he attended gymnasium in Troppau Czech : Opava. Due to illness, he had to take four months off during his gymnasium studies. He also struggled financially to pay for his studies, and Theresia gave him her dowry. Later he helped support her three sons, two of whom became doctors.
