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Article: Mendelian Genetics
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CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2003 The Gale Group Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Mendelian Genetics
Gregor Mendel (1822-1884), an Austrian monk and botanist, was curious and loved nature. He grew plants with diverse flower colors, and he cross-pollinated plant varieties to create
hybrids
. Mendel's fascination with "the striking regularity with which the same hybrid forms always reappeared," broadened his quest into discovering laws for inheriting any trait, not just flower color, from one generation to the next.
Mendel designed a series of experiments to learn the statistical rules governing the features that appeared in hybrids and in their offspring. Mendel identified plant varieties that exhibited the same features over many generations when the plants were ...