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Gregor Mendel worked out the basic laws of inheritance by breeding pea plants in his monastery garden in Brno, and published his results in 1866. The paper was almost entirely ignored until 1900, sixteen years after his death.

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Mendel was an Augustinian friar, and later abbot, at St Thomas's Abbey in Brno, in today's Czech Republic. Over about eight years he grew and cross-bred thousands of pea plants, tracking traits such as seed shape and flower colour across generations, and found that they were passed on in predictable ratios. He presented the results to the Natural History Society of Brno in 1865 and published them the next year, but few readers grasped their importance. Around 1900 three botanists, Hugo de Vries, Carl Correns and Erich von Tschermak, reached similar results and brought his paper to light. The rules he described are still taught as Mendelian inheritance.

Türkçe oku
Gregor Mendel, Brno'daki manastırının bahçesinde bezelye yetiştirerek kalıtımın temel yasalarını ortaya koydu ve sonuçlarını 1866'da yayımladı. Makalesi, ölümünden on altı yıl sonra, 1900'e kadar neredeyse hiç ilgi görmedi.

Mendel, bugünkü Çekya'da bulunan Brno'daki Aziz Tomas Manastırı'nda Aziz Augustinus tarikatından bir keşişti; sonradan manastırın başrahibi oldu. Yaklaşık sekiz yıl boyunca binlerce bezelye bitkisini yetiştirip birbiriyle çaprazladı; tohum biçimi, çiçek rengi gibi özelliklerin kuşaktan kuşağa nasıl geçtiğini izledi ve bunların öngörülebilir oranlarla aktarıldığını buldu. Sonuçları 1865'te Brno Doğa Tarihi Derneği'nde anlattı, ertesi yıl yayımladı; ama çalışmanın önemini kavrayan pek olmadı. 1900 dolayında üç botanikçi, Hugo de Vries, Carl Correns ve Erich von Tschermak, benzer sonuçlara ulaştı ve Mendel'in makalesini gün yüzüne çıkardı. Onun tanımladığı kurallar bugün hâlâ Mendel kalıtımı adıyla okutuluyor.

Sources and further reading

Background reading: Gregor Mendel
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