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Bibliography on: Gregor Mendel

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ESP: PubMed Auto Bibliography 27 Mar 2024 at 01:48 Created: 

Gregor Mendel

In 1865, Gregor Mendel reported the results of his experiments with peas and in so doing laid the foundations of what has become the modern science of genetics. There are few examples of entire fields having been so clearly founded upon the works of one man.

Created with PubMed® Query: mendel[title] AND (gregor OR brno OR versuche OR darwin OR "father of genetics") NOT "James Ross" NOT Antarctic NOT pmcbook NOT ispreviousversion

Citations The Papers (from PubMed®)

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RevDate: 2023-10-06

Curtis D (2023)

Mendel did not study common, naturally occurring phenotypes.

Journal of genetics, 102:.

Modern genetics research increasingly reveals that what is commonly termed Mendelian genetics occurs rarely in nature, especially with regard to the effects that genetic variation exerts on human characteristics. It has been argued that an inappropriate emphasis on Mendel's work could distort the public understanding of genetics and indeed in the UK Mendel has been completely dropped from the official school syllabus. There is a widespread misunderstanding that Mendel studied common phenotypes such as height and colour in individual pea plants. In fact, he studied a handful of specially selected phenotypes which he observed to be always dichotomous in 22 specially bred varieties of pea and studied crosses between individuals from these different varieties. This approach enabled him to study a small number of phenotypes which did in fact exhibit truly Mendelian transmission. Modern molecular genetic studies have now demonstrated that these phenotypes result from loss of function variants which result in markedly reduced activity of specific proteins and which hence have recessive effects. Understanding that Mendel studied the effects of loss of function mutations in crosses between artificially bred varieties, rather than naturally occurring variation in a population, could allow his work to continue to be taught as part of a modern genetics curriculum.

RevDate: 2023-09-29

Jeffrey SL, Brigham DA, Chawla SP, et al (2023)

From Mendel to Gene Therapy.

Anticancer research, 43(10):4257-4261.

RevDate: 2023-08-02
CmpDate: 2023-08-02

Smýkal P, EJB von Wettberg (2023)

A Commemorative Issue in Honor of 200th Anniversary of the Birth of Gregor Johann Mendel: The Genius of Genetics.

International journal of molecular sciences, 24(14):.

In celebration of the bicentennial of the birth of Gregor Johann Mendel, the genius of genetics, this Special Issue presents seven papers [...].

RevDate: 2023-07-28
CmpDate: 2023-07-28

Mulvihill JJ, WW Grody (2023)

The Gregor Mendel Bicentennial Tribute-Enduring Mementos of the Founder of Genetics.

JAMA, 330(4):297-298.

RevDate: 2023-05-16
CmpDate: 2023-05-12

Kutschera U, R Khanna (2023)

Mendel-200: Pea as a model system to analyze hormone-mediated stem elongation.

Plant signaling & behavior, 18(1):2207845.

In a recent Review Article on Gregor Mendel's (1822-1884) work with pea (Pisum sativum)-plants, it was proposed that this crop species should be re-vitalized as a model organism for the study of cell- and organ growth. Here, we describe the effect of exogenous gibberellic acid (GA3) on the growth of the second internode in 4-day-old light-grown pea seedlings (Pisum sativum, large var. "Senator"). lnjection of glucose into the internode caused a growth-promoting effect similar to that of the hormone GA3. Imbibition of dry pea seeds in GA3, or water as control, resulted in a drastic enhancement in organ development in this tall variety. Similar results were reported for dwarf peas. These "classical" experimental protocols are suitable to study the elusive effect of gibberellins (which act in coordination with auxin) on the regulation of plant development at the biochemical and molecular levels.

RevDate: 2023-06-01
CmpDate: 2023-05-29

van Dijk PJ, TH Noel Ellis (2023)

Gregor Mendel and the theory of species multiplication.

Genetics, 224(2):.

According to the revisionist interpretation of Mendel's pea crosses, his primary aim was not to study the inheritance of traits. Instead, he was interested in the question raised by Linnaeus as to whether new species could arise from the hybridization of existing species. The genetic interpretation is therefore seen as ahistorical by the revisionists. This view goes back to the 1979 article "Mendel no Mendelian?" by the historian of science R.C. Olby. A closer analysis shows that Olby implicitly assumed Mendel adhered to the unusual strictest species definition for Pisum. However, we argue that Mendel only mentions the hypothetical application of this strict definition in his 1866 paper. Like most of his contemporaries, Mendel accepted variation within species where the differences between varieties and species were a matter of degree. After researching variable hybrids in peas (Pisum; 1854-1863), Mendel also studied constant hybrids in hawkweeds (Hieracium; 1866-1873), which he considered to be new species. There is no debate about the latter, but the matter becomes muddled because Olby lumps Pisum and Hieracium together, despite their having completely different reproduction systems. Based on newly discovered historical sources, we also dispute several other assumptions made by Olby. We do not consider Olby's claim that Mendel conducted the Pisum experiments to investigate species multiplication to be tenable.

RevDate: 2023-07-18
CmpDate: 2023-07-10

Raudenska M, Vicar T, Gumulec J, et al (2023)

Johann Gregor Mendel: the victory of statistics over human imagination.

European journal of human genetics : EJHG, 31(7):744-748.

In 2022, we celebrated 200 years since the birth of Johann Gregor Mendel. Although his contributions to science went unrecognized during his lifetime, Mendel not only described the principles of monogenic inheritance but also pioneered the modern way of doing science based on precise experimental data acquisition and evaluation. Novel statistical and algorithmic approaches are now at the center of scientific work, showing that work that is considered marginal in one era can become a mainstream research approach in the next era. The onset of data-driven science caused a shift from hypothesis-testing to hypothesis-generating approaches in science. Mendel is remembered here as a promoter of this approach, and the benefits of big data and statistical approaches are discussed.

RevDate: 2022-11-25
CmpDate: 2022-11-25

Anonymous (2022)

Gregor Mendel feierte seinen 200. Geburtstag im Wiener Billrothhaus.

Wiener klinische Wochenschrift, 134(21-22):806-807.

RevDate: 2022-11-10
CmpDate: 2022-11-10

Cheng S (2022)

Gregor Mendel: The father of genetics who opened a biological world full of wonders.

Molecular plant, 15(11):1641-1645.

RevDate: 2022-09-28

Vyskot B, J Siroky (2022)

Bicentennial of Gregor Johann Mendel's birth: Mendel's work still addresses geneticists in 2022.

Frontiers in plant science, 13:969745.

RevDate: 2023-01-18
CmpDate: 2022-11-30

Sussmilch FC, Ross JJ, JB Reid (2022)

Mendel: From genes to genome.

Plant physiology, 190(4):2103-2114.

Two hundred years after the birth of Gregor Mendel, it is an appropriate time to reflect on recent developments in the discipline of genetics, particularly advances relating to the prescient friar's model species, the garden pea (Pisum sativum L.). Mendel's study of seven characteristics established the laws of segregation and independent assortment. The genes underlying four of Mendel's loci (A, LE, I, and R) have been characterized at the molecular level for over a decade. However, the three remaining genes, influencing pod color (GP), pod form (V/P), and the position of flowers (FA/FAS), have remained elusive for a variety of reasons, including a lack of detail regarding the loci with which Mendel worked. Here, we discuss potential candidate genes for these characteristics, in light of recent advances in the genetic resources for pea. These advances, including the pea genome sequence and reverse-genetics techniques, have revitalized pea as an excellent model species for physiological-genetic studies. We also discuss the issues that have been raised with Mendel's results, such as the recent controversy regarding the discrete nature of the characters that Mendel chose and the perceived overly-good fit of his segregations to his hypotheses. We also consider the relevance of these controversies to his lasting contribution. Finally, we discuss the use of Mendel's classical results to teach and enthuse future generations of geneticists, not only regarding the core principles of the discipline, but also its history and the role of hypothesis testing.

RevDate: 2022-08-17
CmpDate: 2022-08-01

Clarke J, PLOS Biology Staff Editors (2022)

Mendel's legacy in modern genetics.

PLoS biology, 20(7):e3001760.

A new collection of articles celebrating the bicentennial of Gregor Mendel's birth discuss his life, work and legacy in modern-day genetic research.

RevDate: 2022-09-07
CmpDate: 2022-07-22

Stenseth NC, Andersson L, HE Hoekstra (2022)

Gregor Johann Mendel and the development of modern evolutionary biology.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 119(30):e2201327119.

RevDate: 2022-09-07
CmpDate: 2022-07-22

Berry A, J Browne (2022)

Mendel and Darwin.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 119(30):e2122144119.

Evolution by natural selection is an explicitly genetic theory. Darwin recognized that a working theory of inheritance was central to his theory and spent much of his scientific life seeking one. The seeds of his attempt to fill this gap, his "provisional hypothesis" of pangenesis, appear in his notebooks when he was first formulating his evolutionary ideas. Darwin, in short, desperately needed Mendel. In this paper, we set Mendel's work in the context of experimental biology and animal/plant breeding of the period and review both the well-known story of possible contact between Mendel and Darwin and the actual contact between their ideas after their deaths. Mendel's contributions to evolutionary biology were fortuitous. Regardless, it is Mendel's work that completed Darwin's theory. The modern theory based on the marriage between Mendel's and Darwin's ideas as forged most comprehensively by R. A. Fisher is both Darwin's achievement and Mendel's.

RevDate: 2022-09-07
CmpDate: 2022-07-22

Hartl DL (2022)

Gregor Johann Mendel: From peasant to priest, pedagogue, and prelate.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 119(30):e2121953119.

Gregor Mendel was an Augustinian priest in the Monastery of St. Thomas in BrĂĽnn (Brno, Czech Republic) as well as a civilian employee who taught natural history and physics in the BrĂĽnn Modern School. The monastery's secular function was to provide teachers for the public schools across Moravia. It was a cultural, educational, and artistic center with an elite core of friar-teachers with a well-stocked library and other amenities including a gourmet kitchen. It was wealthy, with far-flung holdings yielding income from agricultural productions. Mendel had failed his tryout as a parish priest and did not complete his examination for teaching certification despite 2 y of study at the University of Vienna. In addition to his teaching and religious obligations, Mendel carried out daily meteorological and astronomical observations, cared for the monastery's fruit orchard and beehives, and tended plants in the greenhouse and small outdoor gardens. In the years 1856 to 1863, he carried out experiments on heredity of traits in garden peas regarded as revolutionary today but not widely recognized during his lifetime and until 16 y after his death. In 1868 he was elected abbot of the monastery, a significantly elevated position in the ecclesiastical and civil hierarchy. While he had hoped to be elected, and was honored to accept, he severely underestimated its administrative responsibilities and gradually had to abandon his scientific interests. The last decade of his life was marred by an ugly dispute with civil authorities over monastery taxation.

RevDate: 2022-12-15
CmpDate: 2022-07-21

Anonymous (2022)

The true legacy of Gregor Mendel: careful, rigorous and humble science.

Nature, 607(7919):421-422.

RevDate: 2022-08-17
CmpDate: 2022-07-21

Matalova E (2022)

Johann Gregor Mendel: Born to be a scientist?.

PLoS biology, 20(7):e3001703.

Johann Gregor Mendel, born 200 years ago, was supposed to be a farmer, intended to be a teacher, became a priest, turned to being a researcher, and later became a world famous scientist associated with genetics. Here, we look into his life through his own words.

RevDate: 2022-08-17
CmpDate: 2022-07-21

Mackay TFC, RRH Anholt (2022)

Gregor Mendel's legacy in quantitative genetics.

PLoS biology, 20(7):e3001692.

Gregor Mendel's discovery of the laws of segregation and independent assortment and his inference of the existence of non-mendelian interactions between loci remain at the heart of today's explorations of the genetic architecture of quantitative traits.

RevDate: 2022-12-15
CmpDate: 2022-07-15

van Dijk PJ, Jessop AP, THN Ellis (2022)

How did Mendel arrive at his discoveries?.

Nature genetics, 54(7):926-933.

There are few historical records concerning Gregor Johann Mendel and his work, so theories abound concerning his motivation. These theories range from Fisher's view that Mendel was testing a fully formed previous theory of inheritance to Olby's view that Mendel was not interested in inheritance at all, whereas textbooks often state his motivation was to understand inheritance. In this Perspective, we review current ideas about how Mendel arrived at his discoveries and then discuss an alternative scenario based on recently discovered historical sources that support the suggestion that Mendel's fundamental research on the inheritance of traits emerged from an applied plant breeding program. Mendel recognized the importance of the new cell theory; understanding of the formation of reproductive cells and the process of fertilization explained his segregation ratios. This interest was probably encouraged by his friendship with Johann Nave, whose untimely death preceded Mendel's first 1865 lecture by a few months. This year is the 200th anniversary of Mendel's birth, presenting a timely opportunity to revisit the events in his life that led him to undertake his seminal research. We review existing ideas on how Mendel made his discoveries, before presenting more recent evidence.

RevDate: 2022-10-20
CmpDate: 2022-07-15

Charlesworth B, Goddard ME, Meyer K, et al (2022)

From Mendel to quantitative genetics in the genome era: the scientific legacy of W. G. Hill.

Nature genetics, 54(7):934-939.

The quantitative geneticist W. G. ('Bill') Hill, awardee of the 2018 Darwin Medal of the Royal Society and the 2019 Mendel Medal of the Genetics Society (United Kingdom), died on 17 December 2021 at the age of 81 years. Here, we pay tribute to his multiple key scientific contributions, which span population and evolutionary genetics, animal and plant breeding and human genetics. We discuss his theoretical research on the role of linkage disequilibrium (LD) and mutational variance in the response to selection, the origin of the widely used LD metric r[2] in genomic association studies, the genetic architecture of complex traits, the quantification of the variation in realized relationships given a pedigree relationship and much more. We demonstrate that basic theoretical research in quantitative and statistical genetics has led to profound insights into the genetics and evolution of complex traits and made predictions that were subsequently empirically validated, often decades later.

RevDate: 2022-11-19
CmpDate: 2022-11-18

Poczai P, Santiago-Blay JA, Sekerák J, et al (2022)

Mimush Sheep and the Spectre of Inbreeding: Historical Background for Festetics's Organic and Genetic Laws Four Decades Before Mendel's Experiments in Peas.

Journal of the history of biology, 55(3):495-536.

The upheavals of late eighteenth century Europe encouraged people to demand greater liberties, including the freedom to explore the natural world, individually or as part of investigative associations. The Moravian Agricultural and Natural Science Society, organized by Christian Carl André, was one such group of keen practitioners of theoretical and applied scientific disciplines. Headquartered in the "Moravian Manchester" Brünn (nowadays Brno), the centre of the textile industry, society members debated the improvement of sheep wool to fulfil the needs of the Habsburg armies fighting in the Napoleonic Wars. Wool, as the raw material of soldiers' clothing, could influence the war's outcome. During the early nineteenth century, wool united politics, economics, and science in Brno, where breeders and natural scientists investigated the possibilities of increasing wool production. They regularly discussed how "climate" or "seed" characteristics influenced wool quality and quantity. Breeders and academics put their knowledge into immediate practice to create sheep with better wool traits through consanguineous matching of animals and artificial selection. This apparent disregard for the incest taboo, however, was viewed as violating natural laws and cultural norms. The debate intensified between 1817 and 1820, when a Hungarian veteran soldier, sheep breeder, and self-taught natural scientist, Imre (Emmerich) Festetics, displayed his inbred Mimush sheep, which yielded wool extremely well suited for the fabrication of light but strong garments. Members of the Society questioned whether such "bastard sheep" would be prone to climatic degeneration, should be regarded as freaks of nature, or could be explained by natural laws. The exploration of inbreeding in sheep began to be distilled into hereditary principles that culminated in 1819 with Festetics's "laws of organic functions" and "genetic laws of nature," four decades before Gregor Johann Mendel's seminal work on heredity in peas.

RevDate: 2023-07-03
CmpDate: 2022-07-13

van Dijk PJ, THN Ellis (2022)

Mendel's reaction to Darwin's provisional hypothesis of pangenesis and the experiment that could not wait.

Heredity, 129(1):12-16.

RevDate: 2022-12-15
CmpDate: 2022-06-22

Nasmyth K (2022)

The magic and meaning of Mendel's miracle.

Nature reviews. Genetics, 23(7):447-452.

July 2022 will see the bicentenary of the birth of Gregor Mendel, often hailed as the 'father of modern genetics'. To mark the occasion, I retrace Mendel's origins, revisit his famous study 'Experiments in plant hybridization', and reflect on the revolutionary implications of his work and scientific legacy that continues to shape modern biomedicine to this day.

RevDate: 2022-06-22
CmpDate: 2022-06-22

Zschocke J, Byers PH, AOM Wilkie (2022)

Gregor Mendel and the concepts of dominance and recessiveness.

Nature reviews. Genetics, 23(7):387-388.

RevDate: 2023-04-28
CmpDate: 2022-07-07

Eckardt NA, Birchler JA, BC Meyers (2022)

Focus on plant genetics: Celebrating Gregor Mendel's 200th birth anniversary.

The Plant cell, 34(7):2453-2454.

RevDate: 2023-04-21
CmpDate: 2022-07-06

Lysak MA (2022)

Celebrating Mendel, McClintock, and Darlington: On end-to-end chromosome fusions and nested chromosome fusions.

The Plant cell, 34(7):2475-2491.

The evolution of eukaryotic genomes is accompanied by fluctuations in chromosome number, reflecting cycles of chromosome number increase (polyploidy and centric fissions) and decrease (chromosome fusions). Although all chromosome fusions result from DNA recombination between two or more nonhomologous chromosomes, several mechanisms of descending dysploidy are exploited by eukaryotes to reduce their chromosome number. Genome sequencing and comparative genomics have accelerated the identification of inter-genome chromosome collinearity and gross chromosomal rearrangements and have shown that end-to-end chromosome fusions (EEFs) and nested chromosome fusions (NCFs) may have played a more important role in the evolution of eukaryotic karyotypes than previously thought. The present review aims to summarize the limited knowledge on the origin, frequency, and evolutionary implications of EEF and NCF events in eukaryotes and especially in land plants. The interactions between nonhomologous chromosomes in interphase nuclei and chromosome (mis)pairing during meiosis are examined for their potential importance in the origin of EEFs and NCFs. The remaining open questions that need to be addressed are discussed.

RevDate: 2023-07-03
CmpDate: 2022-07-13

Fairbanks DJ (2022)

Demystifying the mythical Mendel: a biographical review.

Heredity, 129(1):4-11.

Gregor Mendel is widely recognised as the founder of genetics. His experiments led him to devise an enduring theory, often distilled into what are now known as the principles of segregation and independent assortment. Although he clearly articulated these principles, his theory is considerably richer, encompassing the nature of fertilisation, the role of hybridisation in evolution, and aspects often considered as exceptions or extensions, such as pleiotropy, incomplete dominance, and epistasis. In an admirable attempt to formulate a more expansive theory, he researched hybridisation in at least twenty plant genera, intentionally choosing some species whose inheritance he knew would deviate from the patterns he observed in the garden pea (Pisum sativum). Regrettably, he published the results of only a few of these additional experiments; evidence of them is largely confined to letters he wrote to Carl von Nägeli. Because most original documentation is lost or destroyed, scholars have attempted to reconstruct his history and achievements from fragmentary evidence, a situation that has led to unfortunate omissions, errors, and speculations. These range from historical uncertainties, such as what motivated his experiments, to unfounded suppositions regarding his discoveries, including assertions that he never articulated the principles ascribed to him, staunchly opposed Darwinism, fictitiously recounted experiments, and falsified data to better accord with his theory. In this review, I have integrated historical and scientific evidence within a biographical framework to dispel misconceptions and provide a clearer and more complete view of who Mendel was and what he accomplished.

RevDate: 2022-04-01
CmpDate: 2022-03-30

Zhang H, Zhao X, Zhao F, et al (2022)

Mendel's controlled pollination experiments in Mirabilis jalapa confirmed his discovery of the gamete theory of inheritance in Pisum.

Hereditas, 159(1):19.

The historian studies revealed during Mendel's later research period when mainly focusing on the constant hybrid in Hieracium, he had to be intervened to conduct the controlled pollination experiments in Mirabilis jalapa. Two letters to Nageli recorded the experimental aim was to disprove Darwin's opinion regarding three pollen grains required for one fertilization (note: that could completely destroy his previous discovery of segregation inheritance in variable hybrid in Pisum, for it was expressed in a mathematical equation). The experimental results of single pollen grain pollination confirmed the referenced view of one pollen cell uniting one egg cell in plant fertilization; the further pedigree introduction of the single and of the designed two pollen grain experiment succeeded in exemplifying that one hereditary factor carried by one gamete (pollen cell or egg cell) can independently transmit a trait to offspring. Here we coined the observation as the Gamete Theory of Inheritance. Remarkably, in contrast with the bulked pollination experiment, in this system, Mendel could easily manipulate a hereditary factor by merely taking a gamete as a carrier. Then, Mendel's work in M. jalapa together with the previous Pisum study was able to jointly suppport his second lecture content that regarded "gamete formation, fertilization, and seed development" and also regarded hereditary factors in the processes. All in all, the 1866 paper was published during a rapid burst of interest in hybrid species likely induced by Darwin, and Mendel's attempts at accommodation of the two incompatible inheritances of segregation in variable hybrids versus of nonsegregation in constant hybrids might be responsible for some historical controversies when understanding his discovery of inheritance.

RevDate: 2022-06-02
CmpDate: 2022-05-31

Radick G (2022)

Mendel the fraud? A social history of truth in genetics.

Studies in history and philosophy of science, 93:39-46.

Two things about Gregor Mendel are common knowledge: first, that he was the "monk in the garden" whose experiments with peas in mid-nineteenth-century Moravia became the starting point for genetics; second, that, despite that exalted status, there is something fishy, maybe even fraudulent, about the data that Mendel reported. Although the notion that Mendel's numbers were, in statistical terms, too good to be true was well understood almost immediately after the famous "rediscovery" of his work in 1900, the problem became widely discussed and agonized over only from the 1960s, for reasons having as much to do with Cold War geopolitics as with traditional concerns about the objectivity of science. Appreciating the historical origins of the problem as we have inherited it can be a helpful step in shifting the discussion in more productive directions, scientific as well as historiographic.

RevDate: 2023-03-04
CmpDate: 2022-07-07

Berger F (2022)

Which field of research would Gregor Mendel choose in the 21st century?.

The Plant cell, 34(7):2462-2465.

Gregor Mendel's work on segregation of traits in plants established the basic methodology and rules of genetics. The interruption of Mendel's research activities in 1870 impeded the immediate recognition of the value of his work until the dawn of the 20th century. Only then were his founding laws of genetics validated, propelling the development of biological research toward the birth of molecular biology in the second half of the 20th century. While molecular plant genetics can be viewed as the spiritual heir of Mendel's research, one might wonder whether in the 21st century Gregor Mendel would prefer to practice scientific approaches other than molecular genetics such as population genetics, comparative genomics, or the emerging field of evo-chromo. In this perspective, I review aspects of these fields that might have attracted or perplexed a 21st century Mendel.

RevDate: 2022-01-13
CmpDate: 2022-01-13

Poczai P, JA Santiago-Blay (2021)

Principles and biological concepts of heredity before Mendel.

Biology direct, 16(1):19.

The knowledge of the history of a subject stimulates understanding. As we study how other people have made scientific breakthroughs, we develop the breadth of imagination that would inspire us to make new discoveries of our own. This perspective certainly applies to the teaching of genetics as hallmarked by the pea experiments of Mendel. Common questions students have in reading Mendel's paper for the first time is how it compares to other botanical, agricultural, and biological texts from the early and mid-nineteenth centuries; and, more precisely, how Mendel's approach to, and terminology for debating, topics of heredity compare to those of his contemporaries? Unfortunately, textbooks are often unavailing in answering such questions. It is very common to find an introduction about heredity in genetic textbooks covering Mendel without mentions of preceding breeding experiments carried out in his alma mater. This does not help students to understand how Mendel came to ask the questions he did, why he did, or why he planned his pea studies the way he did. Furthermore, the standard textbook "sketch" of genetics does not allow students to consider how discoveries could have been framed and inspired so differently in various parts of the world within a single historical time. In our review we provide an extended overview bridging this gap by showing how different streams of ideas lead to the eventual foundation of particulate inheritance as a scientific discipline. We close our narrative with investigations on the origins of animal and plant breeding in Central Europe prior to Mendel in KĹ‘szeg and Brno, where vigorous debates touched on basic issues of heredity from the early eighteenth-century eventually reaching a pinnacle coining the basic questions: What is inherited and how is it passed on from one generation to another?

RevDate: 2022-02-24
CmpDate: 2022-02-24

Francomano CA (2021)

Victor Almon McKusick: In the footsteps of Mendel and Osler.

American journal of medical genetics. Part A, 185(11):3193-3201.

Victor Almon McKusick (VAM) is widely recognized as the father of the field of medical genetics. He established one of the first medical genetics clinics in the United States at Johns Hopkins in 1957 and developed a robust training program with the tripartite mission of education, research, and clinical care. Thousands of clinicians and scientists were educated over the years through the Short Course in Medical and Molecular Genetics, which VAM founded with Dr. Thomas Roderick in 1960. His Online Mendelian Inheritance in Man (OMIM), a catalog of human genes and genetic disorders, serves as the authoritative reference for geneticists around the globe. Throughout his career he was an advocate for mapping the human genome. He collaborated with Dr. Frank Ruddle in founding the International Human Gene Mapping Workshops in the early 70's and was an avid proponent of the Human Genome Project. He was the founding President of the Human Genome Organization and a founding editor of the journal Genomics. His prodigious contributions to the field of medical genetics were recognized by multiple honors, culminating with the Japan Prize in 2008.

RevDate: 2021-08-02
CmpDate: 2021-08-02

O'Brien JE, Adashi EY, C Simon (2021)

Darwin meets Mendel in the reproductive medicine field: Homo sapiens 2.0 is inevitable.

Fertility and sterility, 115(4):850-851.

RevDate: 2022-04-12
CmpDate: 2020-08-24

Nivet C (2020)

[Was Gregor Mendel subjected to chores before becoming a monk in 1843?].

Medecine sciences : M/S, 36(1):63-68.

Our knowledge of the young Mendel's life prior to his admission to the monastery comes essentially from the curriculum vitae submitted in 1850. His first biographer Hugo Iltis used this document as a sort of autobiography, although the document contained various voluntary omissions and inaccuracies. We have sought the reasons for these and in so doing have discovered why Mendel's entry into religion had become ineluctable.

RevDate: 2022-11-18
CmpDate: 2021-05-19

Fairbanks DJ (2020)

Mendel and Darwin: untangling a persistent enigma.

Heredity, 124(2):263-273.

Mendel and Darwin were contemporaries, with much overlap in their scientifically productive years. Available evidence shows that Mendel knew much about Darwin, whereas Darwin knew nothing of Mendel. Because of the fragmentary nature of this evidence, published inferences regarding Mendel's views on Darwinian evolution are contradictory and enigmatic, with claims ranging from enthusiastic acceptance to outright rejection. The objective of this review is to examine evidence from Mendel's published and private writings on evolution and Darwin, and the influence of the scientific environment in which he was immersed. Much of this evidence lies in Mendel's handwritten annotations in his copies of Darwin's books, which this review scrutinises in detail. Darwin's writings directly influenced Mendel's classic 1866 paper, and his letters to Nägeli. He commended and criticised Darwin on specific issues pertinent to his research, including the provisional hypothesis of pangenesis, the role of pollen in fertilisation, and the influence of "conditions of life" on heritable variation. In his final letter to Nägeli, Mendel proposed a Darwinian scenario for natural selection using the same German term for "struggle for existence" as in his copies of Darwin's books. His published and private scientific writings are entirely objective, devoid of polemics or religious allusions, and address evolutionary questions in a manner consistent with that of his scientific contemporaries. The image that emerges of Mendel is of a meticulous scientist who accepted the tenets of Darwinian evolution, while privately pinpointing aspects of Darwin's views of inheritance that were not supported by Mendel's own experiments.

RevDate: 2020-04-30
CmpDate: 2020-04-30

Ellis THN, Hofer JMI, Swain MT, et al (2019)

Mendel's pea crosses: varieties, traits and statistics.

Hereditas, 156:33.

A controversy arose over Mendel's pea crossing experiments after the statistician R.A. Fisher proposed how these may have been performed and criticised Mendel's interpretation of his data. Here we re-examine Mendel's experiments and investigate Fisher's statistical criticisms of bias. We describe pea varieties available in Mendel's time and show that these could readily provide all the material Mendel needed for his experiments; the characters he chose to follow were clearly described in catalogues at the time. The combination of character states available in these varieties, together with Eichling's report of crosses Mendel performed, suggest that two of his F3 progeny test experiments may have involved the same F2 population, and therefore that these data should not be treated as independent variables in statistical analysis of Mendel's data. A comprehensive re-examination of Mendel's segregation ratios does not support previous suggestions that they differ remarkably from expectation. The χ[2] values for his segregation ratios sum to a value close to the expectation and there is no deficiency of extreme segregation ratios. Overall the χ values for Mendel's segregation ratios deviate slightly from the standard normal distribution; this is probably because of the variance associated with phenotypic rather than genotypic ratios and because Mendel excluded some data sets with small numbers of progeny, where he noted the ratios "deviate not insignificantly" from expectation.

RevDate: 2020-07-10
CmpDate: 2020-07-10

Deichmann U (2019)

From Gregor Mendel to Eric Davidson: Mathematical Models and Basic Principles in Biology.

Journal of computational biology : a journal of computational molecular cell biology, 26(7):637-652.

Mathematical models have been widespread in biology since its emergence as a modern experimental science in the 19th century. Focusing on models in developmental biology and heredity, this article (1) presents the properties and epistemological basis of pertinent mathematical models in biology from Mendel's model of heredity in the 19th century to Eric Davidson's model of developmental gene regulatory networks in the 21st; (2) shows that the models differ not only in their epistemologies but also in regard to explicitly or implicitly taking into account basic biological principles, in particular those of biological specificity (that became, in part, replaced by genetic information) and genetic causality. The article claims that models disregarding these principles did not impact the direction of biological research in a lasting way, although some of them, such as D'Arcy Thompson's models of biological form, were widely read and admired and others, such as Turing's models of development, stimulated research in other fields. Moreover, it suggests that successful models were not purely mathematical descriptions or simulations of biological phenomena but were based on inductive, as well as hypothetico-deductive, methodology. The recent availability of large amounts of sequencing data and new computational methodology tremendously facilitates system approaches and pattern recognition in many fields of research. Although these new technologies have given rise to claims that correlation is replacing experimentation and causal analysis, the article argues that the inductive and hypothetico-deductive experimental methodologies have remained fundamentally important as long as causal-mechanistic explanations of complex systems are pursued.

RevDate: 2018-12-21
CmpDate: 2018-12-21

van Dijk PJ, Weissing FJ, THN Ellis (2018)

How Mendel's Interest in Inheritance Grew out of Plant Improvement.

Genetics, 210(2):347-355.

Despite the fact that Gregor Mendel is generally respected as the founder of genetics, little is known about the origin of and motivation for his revolutionary work. No primary sources are known that discuss his work during the period of his pea crossing experiments. Here, we report on two previously unknown interconnected local newspaper articles about Mendel's work that predate his famous Pisum lectures by 4 years. These articles describe Mendel as a plant breeder and a horticulturist. We argue that Mendel's initial interests concerned crop improvement, but that with time he became more interested in fundamental questions about inheritance, fertilization, and natural hybridization.

RevDate: 2019-09-12
CmpDate: 2019-09-12

Liu Y (2018)

Darwin and Mendel: The Historical Connection.

Advances in genetics, 102:1-25.

Darwin carried out a host of carefully controlled cross- and self-pollination experiments in a wide variety of plants, and made a significant and imperishable contribution to the knowledge of hybridization. He not only clearly described the phenomenon of what he called prepotency and what we now call dominance or Mendelian inheritance, but also explained it by his Pangenesis. Recent discovery of small RNAs acting as dominance modifiers supports his Pangenesis regarding the control of prepotency by gemmules. Historical studies show that there is striking evidence that Mendel read Darwin's The Origin of Species, which had influenced his paper presented in 1865 and published in 1866. Although Mendel's paper has been considered a classic in the history of genetics, it generated much controversy since its rediscovery. Mendel's position as the father of genetics is being seriously challenged. Darwin's main contribution to genetics was the collection of a tremendous amount of genetic data, and the formulation of a comprehensive genetical theory for their explanation. Over the past 150 years, however, Darwin's legacy to genetics, particularly his Pangenesis, has not been considered seriously by most geneticists. It is proposed that Darwin should have been regarded as one of the most important pioneers in genetics.

RevDate: 2018-11-13
CmpDate: 2017-12-07

Zhang H, Chen W, K Sun (2017)

Mendelism: New Insights from Gregor Mendel's Lectures in Brno.

Genetics, 207(1):1-8.

Interpretation of Gregor Mendel's work has previously been based on study of his published paper "Experiments in Plant Hybridization." In contrast, the lectures that he gave preceding publication of this work have been largely neglected for more than 150 years. Here, we report on and interpret the content of Mendel's previous two lectures, as they were reported in a local newspaper. We comprehensively reference both the text of his paper and the historical background of his experiments. Our analysis shows that while Mendel had inherited the traditional research program on interspecific hybridization in plants, he introduced the novel method of ratio analysis for representing the variation of unit-characters among offspring of hybrids. His aim was to characterize and explain the developmental features of the distributional pattern of unit-characters in two series of hybrid experiments, using self-crosses and backcrosses with parents. In doing so, he not only answered the question of what the unit-characters were and the nature of their hierarchical classification, but also successfully inferred the numerical principle of unit-character transmission from generation to generation. He also established the nature of the composition and behaviors of reproductive cells from one generation to the next. Here we highlight the evidence from Mendel's lectures, clearly announcing that he had discovered the general law of cross-generation transmission of unit-characters through reproductive cells containing unit-factors. The recovered content of these previous lectures more accurately describes the work he performed with his garden peas than his published paper and shows how he first presented it in Brno. It is thus an invaluable resource for understanding the origin of the science of genetics.

RevDate: 2019-01-15
CmpDate: 2017-05-26

van Dijk PJ, TH Ellis (2016)

The Full Breadth of Mendel's Genetics.

Genetics, 204(4):1327-1336.

Gregor Mendel's "Experiments on Plant Hybrids" (1865/1866), published 150 years ago, is without doubt one of the most brilliant works in biology. Curiously, Mendel's later studies on Hieracium (hawkweed) are usually seen as a frustrating failure, because it is assumed that they were intended to confirm the segregation ratios he found in Pisum Had this been his intention, such a confirmation would have failed, since, unknown to Mendel, Hieracium species mostly reproduce by means of clonal seeds (apomixis). Here we show that this assumption arises from a misunderstanding that could be explained by a missing page in Mendel's first letter to Carl Nägeli. Mendel's writings clearly indicate his interest in "constant hybrids," hybrids which do not segregate, and which were "essentially different" from "variable hybrids" such as in Pisum After the Pisum studies, Mendel worked mainly on Hieracium for 7 years where he found constant hybrids and some great surprises. He also continued to explore variable hybrids; both variable and constant hybrids were of interest to Mendel with respect to inheritance and to species evolution. Mendel considered that their similarities and differences might provide deep insights and that their differing behaviors were "individual manifestations of a higher more fundamental law."

RevDate: 2018-12-02
CmpDate: 2017-02-08

HoĂźfeld U, Jacobsen HJ, Plass C, et al (2017)

150 years of Johann Gregor Mendel's "Versuche ĂĽber Pflanzen-Hybriden".

Molecular genetics and genomics : MGG, 292(1):1-3.

RevDate: 2018-01-11
CmpDate: 2018-01-11

Abbott S, DJ Fairbanks (2016)

Experiments on Plant Hybrids by Gregor Mendel.

Genetics, 204(2):407-422.

RevDate: 2019-01-12
CmpDate: 2017-05-23

Fairbanks DJ, S Abbott (2016)

Darwin's Influence on Mendel: Evidence from a New Translation of Mendel's Paper.

Genetics, 204(2):401-405.

Gregor Mendel's classic paper, Versuche ĂĽber Pflanzen-Hybriden (Experiments on Plant Hybrids), was published in 1866, hence 2016 is its sesquicentennial. Mendel completed his experiments in 1863 and shortly thereafter began compiling the results and writing his paper, which he presented in meetings of the Natural Science Society in BrĂĽnn in February and March of 1865. Mendel owned a personal copy of Darwin's Origin of Species, a German translation published in 1863, and it contains his marginalia. Its publication date indicates that Mendel's study of Darwin's book could have had no influence while he was conducting his experiments but its publication date coincided with the period of time when he was preparing his paper, making it possible that Darwin's writings influenced Mendel's interpretations and theory. Based on this premise, we prepared a Darwinized English translation of Mendel's paper by comparing German terms Mendel employed with the same terms in the German translation of Origin of Species in his possession, then using Darwin's counterpart English words and phrases as much as possible in our translation. We found a substantially higher use of these terms in the final two (10th and 11th) sections of Mendel's paper, particularly in one key paragraph, where Mendel reflects on evolutionary issues, providing strong evidence of Darwin's influence on Mendel.

RevDate: 2022-03-09
CmpDate: 2017-02-07

Smýkal P, K Varshney R, K Singh V, et al (2016)

From Mendel's discovery on pea to today's plant genetics and breeding : Commemorating the 150th anniversary of the reading of Mendel's discovery.

TAG. Theoretical and applied genetics. Theoretische und angewandte Genetik, 129(12):2267-2280.

This work discusses several selected topics of plant genetics and breeding in relation to the 150th anniversary of the seminal work of Gregor Johann Mendel. In 2015, we celebrated the 150th anniversary of the presentation of the seminal work of Gregor Johann Mendel. While Darwin's theory of evolution was based on differential survival and differential reproductive success, Mendel's theory of heredity relies on equality and stability throughout all stages of the life cycle. Darwin's concepts were continuous variation and "soft" heredity; Mendel espoused discontinuous variation and "hard" heredity. Thus, the combination of Mendelian genetics with Darwin's theory of natural selection was the process that resulted in the modern synthesis of evolutionary biology. Although biology, genetics, and genomics have been revolutionized in recent years, modern genetics will forever rely on simple principles founded on pea breeding using seven single gene characters. Purposeful use of mutants to study gene function is one of the essential tools of modern genetics. Today, over 100 plant species genomes have been sequenced. Mapping populations and their use in segregation of molecular markers and marker-trait association to map and isolate genes, were developed on the basis of Mendel's work. Genome-wide or genomic selection is a recent approach for the development of improved breeding lines. The analysis of complex traits has been enhanced by high-throughput phenotyping and developments in statistical and modeling methods for the analysis of phenotypic data. Introgression of novel alleles from landraces and wild relatives widens genetic diversity and improves traits; transgenic methodologies allow for the introduction of novel genes from diverse sources, and gene editing approaches offer possibilities to manipulate gene in a precise manner.

RevDate: 2022-03-10
CmpDate: 2017-02-07

Bicknell R, Catanach A, Hand M, et al (2016)

Seeds of doubt: Mendel's choice of Hieracium to study inheritance, a case of right plant, wrong trait.

TAG. Theoretical and applied genetics. Theoretische und angewandte Genetik, 129(12):2253-2266.

In this review, we explore Gregor Mendel's hybridization experiments with Hieracium , update current knowledge on apomictic reproduction and describe approaches now being used to develop true-breeding hybrid crops. From our perspective, it is easy to conclude that Gregor Mendel's work on pea was insightful, but his peers clearly did not regard it as being either very convincing or of much importance. One apparent criticism was that his findings only applied to pea. We know from a letter he wrote to Carl von Nägeli, a leading botanist, that he believed he needed to "verify, with other plants, the results obtained with Pisum". For this purpose, Mendel adopted Hieracium subgenus Pilosella, a phenotypically diverse taxon under botanical study at the time. What Mendel could not have known, however, is that the majority of these plants are not sexual plants like pea, but instead are facultatively apomictic. In these forms, the majority of seed arises asexually, and such progeny are, therefore, clones of the maternal parent. Mendel obtained very few hybrids in his Hieracium crosses, yet we calculate that he probably emasculated in excess of 5000 Hieracium florets to even obtain the numbers he did. Despite that effort, he was perplexed by the results, and they ultimately led him to conclude that "the hybrids of Hieracium show a behaviour exactly opposite to those of Pisum". Apomixis is now a topic of intense research interest, and in an ironic twist of history, Hieracium subgenus Pilosella has been developed as a molecular model to study this trait. In this paper, we explore further Mendel's hybridization experiments with Hieracium, update current knowledge on apomictic reproduction and describe approaches now being used to develop true-breeding hybrid crops.

RevDate: 2019-12-10
CmpDate: 2017-01-17

PaleÄŤek P (2016)

Vítězslav Orel (1926-2015): Gregor Mendel's biographer and the rehabilitation of genetics in the Communist Bloc.

History and philosophy of the life sciences, 38(3):4.

At almost 90 years of age, we have lost the author of the founding historical works on Johann Gregor Mendel. Vítězslav Orel served for almost 30 years as the editor of the journal Folia Mendeliana. His work was beset by the wider problems associated with Mendel's recognition in the Communist Bloc, and by the way in which narratives of the history of science could be co-opted into the service of Cold War and post-Cold War political agendas. Orel played a key role in the organization of the Mendel symposium of 1965 in Brno, and has made a strong contribution to the rehabilitation of genetics generally, and to championing the work of Johann Gregor Mendel in particular. With Jaroslav Kříženecký, he cofounded the Mendelianum in Brno, which for decades has served as an intellectual bridge between the East and West. Orel's involvement with this institution exposed him to dangers both during and after the Cold War.

RevDate: 2017-02-23
CmpDate: 2017-02-23

Gayon J (2016)

From Mendel to epigenetics: History of genetics.

Comptes rendus biologies, 339(7-8):225-230.

The origins of genetics are to be found in Gregor Mendel's memoir on plant hybridization (1865). However, the word 'genetics' was only coined in 1906, to designate the new science of heredity. Founded upon the Mendelian method for analyzing the products of crosses, this science is distinguished by its explicit purpose of being a general 'science of heredity', and by the introduction of totally new biological concepts (in particular those of gene, genotype, and phenotype). In the 1910s, Mendelian genetics fused with the chromosomal theory of inheritance, giving rise to what is still called 'classical genetics'. Within this framework, the gene is simultaneously a unit of function and transmission, a unit of recombination, and of mutation. Until the early 1950s, these concepts of the gene coincided. But when DNA was found to be the material basis of inheritance, this congruence dissolved. Then began the venture of molecular biology, which has never stopped revealing the complexity of the way in which hereditary material functions.

RevDate: 2018-11-13
CmpDate: 2016-01-20

De Castro M (2016)

Johann Gregor Mendel: paragon of experimental science.

Molecular genetics & genomic medicine, 4(1):3-8.

This is a foreword on the life and work of one of the greatest minds of the 20th century, the father of modern genetics, Johann Gregor Mendel.

RevDate: 2016-01-10
CmpDate: 2016-01-07

Richter FC (2015)

Remembering Johann Gregor Mendel: a human, a Catholic priest, an Augustinian monk, and abbot.

Molecular genetics & genomic medicine, 3(6):483-485 pii:MGG3186.

Johann Mendel (Gregor was the name given to him only later by his Augustinian order, Fig. 1) was born on July 20, 1822 to an ethnic German family, Anton and Rosina Mendel (Fig. 2), in Heinzendorf in the Austrian Empire at the Moravian-Silesian border (now HynÄŤice, Czech Republic).

RevDate: 2018-12-02
CmpDate: 2016-07-28

Liu Y, X Li (2016)

Darwin and Mendel today: a comment on "Limits of imagination: the 150th Anniversary of Mendel's Laws, and why Mendel failed to see the importance of his discovery for Darwin's theory of evolution".

Genome, 59(1):75-77.

We comment on a recent paper by Rama Singh, who concludes that Mendel deserved to be called the father of genetics, and Darwin would not have understood the significance of Mendel's paper had he read it. We argue that Darwin should have been regarded as the father of genetics not only because he was the first to formulate a unifying theory of heredity, variation, and development -- Pangenesis, but also because he clearly described almost all genetical phenomena of fundamental importance, including what he called "prepotency" and what we now call "dominance" or "Mendelian inheritance". The word "gene" evolved from Darwin's imagined "gemmules", instead of Mendel's so-called "factors".

RevDate: 2018-12-02
CmpDate: 2016-01-05

Pai-Dhungat JV (2015)

John Gregor Mendel (1822-1884).

The Journal of the Association of Physicians of India, 63(3):60-61.

RevDate: 2015-09-26
CmpDate: 2015-12-22

Birchler JA (2015)

Mendel, mechanism, models, marketing, and more.

Cell, 163(1):9-11.

This year marks the 150(th) anniversary of the presentation by Gregor Mendel of his studies of plant hybridization to the Brunn Natural History Society. Their nature and meaning have been discussed many times. However, on this occasion, we reflect on the scientific enterprise and the perception of new discoveries.

RevDate: 2016-10-20
CmpDate: 2016-07-27

Singh RS (2015)

Limits of imagination: the 150th Anniversary of Mendel's Laws, and why Mendel failed to see the importance of his discovery for Darwin's theory of evolution.

Genome, 58(9):415-421.

Mendel is credited for discovering Laws of Heredity, but his work has come under criticism on three grounds: for possible falsification of data to fit his expectations, for getting undue credit for the laws of heredity without having ideas of segregation and independent assortment, and for being interested in the development of hybrids rather than in the laws of heredity. I present a brief review of these criticisms and conclude that Mendel deserved to be called the father of genetics even if he may not, and most likely did not, have clear ideas of segregation and particulate determiners as we know them now. I argue that neither Mendel understood the evolutionary significance of his findings for the problem of genetic variation, nor would Darwin have understood their significance had he read Mendel's paper. I argue that the limits to imagination, in both cases, came from their mental framework being shaped by existing paradigms-blending inheritance in the case of Darwin, hybrid development in the case of Mendel. Like Einstein, Darwin's natural selection was deterministic; like Niels Bohr, Mendel's Laws were probabilistic-based on random segregation of trait-determining "factors". Unlike Einstein who understood quantum mechanics, Darwin would have been at a loss with Mendel's paper with no guide to turn to. Geniuses in their imaginations are like heat-seeking missiles locked-in with their targets of deep interests and they generally see things in one dimension only. Imagination has limits; unaided imagination is like a bird without wings--it goes nowhere.

RevDate: 2015-08-18
CmpDate: 2015-11-05

Chadov BF, Fedorova NB, EV Chadova (2015)

Conditional mutations in Drosophila melanogaster: On the occasion of the 150th anniversary of G. Mendel's report in BrĂĽnn.

Mutation research. Reviews in mutation research, 765:40-55.

The basis for modern genetics was laid by Gregor Mendel. He proposed that traits belonging to the intraspecific variability class be studied. However, individuals of one species possess traits of another class. They are related to intraspecific similarity. Individuals never differ from each other in these traits. By analogy with traits varying within a species and determined by genes, it is conjectured that intraspecific similarity is determined by genes, too. If so, mutations in these genes can be obtained. This paper provides a review of works published in 2000-2014 that: (1) propose breeding methods for detection of mutations in Drosophila melanogaster genes that lead intraspecific similarity; these mutations were called conditional; (2) describe collections of conditional mutations in chromosomes X, 2, and 3 of Drosophila; (3) show unusual features of epigenetic nature in the mutants; and (4) analyze these features of the mutants. Based on the peculiarities of manifestation it is supposed that the recognized conditional mutations occur in genes responsible for intraspecific similarity. The genes presumably belong to the so-called regulatory network of the Drosophila genome. This approach expands the scope of breeding analysis introduced by G. Mendel for heredity studies 150 years ago.

RevDate: 2018-12-03
CmpDate: 2017-03-07

Tanghe KB (2015)

Mendel at the sesquicentennial of 'Versuche ĂĽber Pflanzen-Hybriden' (1865): The root of the biggest legend in the history of science.

Endeavour, 39(2):106-115.

In 1965, Mendel was still celebrated as the undisputed founder of genetics. In the ensuing 50 years, scholars questioned and undermined this traditional interpretation of his experiments with hybrid plants, without, however, managing to replace it: at the sesquicentennial of the presentation of his 'Versuche' (1865), the Moravian friar remains, to a vast majority, the heroic Father of genetics or at least some kind of geneticist. This exceptionally inert myth is nourished by ontological intuitions but can only continue to flourish, thanks to a long-standing conceptual void in the historiography of biology. It is merely a symptom of this more fundamental problem.

RevDate: 2015-02-19
CmpDate: 2015-03-04

Matalová A, E Matalová (2015)

Plant genetics: Czech centre marks Mendel anniversary.

Nature, 518(7539):303.

RevDate: 2022-03-09
CmpDate: 2015-01-28

Opitz JM, DW Bianchi (2015)

MENDEL: Morphologist and Mathematician Founder of Genetics - To Begin a Celebration of the 2015 Sesquicentennial of Mendel's Presentation in 1865 of his Versuche ĂĽber Pflanzenhybriden.

Molecular genetics & genomic medicine, 3(1):1-7.

RevDate: 2014-12-24
CmpDate: 2015-02-10

Teicher A (2014)

Mendel's use of mathematical modelling: ratios, predictions and the appeal to tradition.

History and philosophy of the life sciences, 36(2):187-208.

The seventh section of Gregor Mendel's famous 1866 paper contained a peculiar mathematical model, which predicted the expected ratios between the number of constant and hybrid types, assuming self-pollination continued throughout further generations. This model was significant for Mendel's argumentation and was perceived as inseparable from his entire theory at the time. A close examination of this model reveals that it has several perplexing aspects which have not yet been systematically scrutinized. The paper analyzes those aspects, dispels some common misconceptions regarding the interpretation of the model, and re-evaluates the role of this model for Mendel himself. In light of the resulting analysis, Mendel's position between nineteenth-century hybridist tradition and twentieth-century population genetics is reassessed, and his sophisticated use of mathematics to legitimize his innovative theory is uncovered.

RevDate: 2021-10-21
CmpDate: 2014-08-21

Poczai P, Bell N, J Hyvönen (2014)

Imre Festetics and the Sheep Breeders' Society of Moravia: Mendel's Forgotten "Research Network".

PLoS biology, 12(1):e1001772.

Contemporary science thrives on collaborative networks, but these can also be found elsewhere in the history of science in unexpected places. When Mendel turned his attention to inheritance in peas he was not an isolated monk, but rather the latest in a line of Moravian researchers and agriculturalists who had been thinking about inheritance for half a century. Many of the principles of inheritance had already been sketched out by Imre Festetics, a Hungarian sheep breeder active in Brno. Festetics, however, was ultimately hindered by the complex nature of his study traits, aspects of wool quality that we now know to be polygenic. Whether or not Mendel was aware of Festetics’s ideas,both men were products of the same vibrant milieu in 19th-century Moravia that combined theory and agricultural practice to eventually uncover the rules of inheritance.

RevDate: 2019-09-23
CmpDate: 2013-09-19

He FH, Zhu BY, Gao F, et al (2013)

[Research progress on the cloning of Mendel's gene in pea (Pisum sativum L.) and its application in genetics teaching].

Yi chuan = Hereditas, 35(7):931-938.

One hundred and fifty years ago, Gregor Mendel investigated the segregation of seven traits in pea (Pisum sativum) and established the law of segregation and the law of independent assortment in genetics. After the two laws of genetics were rediscovered in 1900, the seven traits have been extensively investigated in the fields of plant physiology and biochemistry as well as in the cell and molecular levels. Recently, with the development of molecular technology in genetics, four genes for seed shape (R), stem length (Le), cotyledon colour (I), and flower colour (A) have been cloned and sequenced; and another three genes for immature pod colour (Gp), fasciation (Fa) and pod form (V) have been located in the linkage groups, respectively. The identification and cloning of the four Mendel's genes will help deeply understand the basic concept of gene in many respects: like the diversity of gene function, the different origins for gene mutation in molecular level, and the molecular nature of a dominant gene or a recessive gene. In teaching of genetics, the introduction of most recent research advancements of cloning of Mendel's genes to the students and the interpretation of the Mendel's laws in molecular level will help students promote their learning interests in genetics and help students grasp the whole content from classical genetics to molecular genetics and the developmental direction of this subject.

RevDate: 2021-10-21
CmpDate: 2013-12-10

Gowaty PA, Kim YK, WW Anderson (2013)

Mendel's law reveals fatal flaws in Bateman's 1948 study of mating and fitness.

Fly, 7(1):28-38.

Bateman's experimental study of Drosophila melanogaster produced conclusions that are now part of the bedrock premises of modern sexual selection. Today it is the most cited experimental study in sexual selection, and famous as the first experimental demonstration of sex differences in the relationship between number of mates and relative reproductive success. We repeated the experimental methodology of the original to evaluate its reliability. The results indicate that Bateman's methodology of visible mutations to assign parentage and reproductive success to subject adults is significantly biased. When combined in offspring, the mutations decrease offspring survival, so that counts of mate number and reproductive success are mismeasured. Bateman's method overestimates the number of subjects with no mates and underestimates the number with one or more mates for both sexes. Here we discuss why Bateman's paper is important and present additional analyses of data from our monogamy trials. Monogamy trials can inform inferences about the force of sexual selection in populations because in monogamy trials male-male competition and female choice are absent. Monogamy trials also would have provided Bateman with an a priori test of the fit of his data to Mendel's laws, an unstated, but vital assumption of his methodology for assigning parentage from which he inferred the number of mates per individual subject and their reproductive success. Even under enforced monogamous mating, offspring frequencies of double mutant, single mutant and no mutant offspring were significantly different from Mendelian expectations proving that Bateman's method was inappropriate for answering the questions he posed. Double mutant offspring (those with a mutation from each parent) suffered significant inviability as did single mutant offspring whenever they inherited their mother's marker but the wild-type allele at their father's marker locus. These inviability effects produced two important inaccuracies in Bateman's results and conclusions. (1) Some matings that actually occurred were invisible and (2) reproductive success of some mothers was under-estimated. Both observations show that Bateman's conclusions about sex differences in number of mates and reproductive success were unwarranted, based on biased observations. We speculate about why Bateman's classic study remained without replication for so long, and we discuss why repetition almost 60 years after the original is still timely, necessary and critical to the scientific enterprise. We highlight overlooked alternative hypotheses to urge that modern tests of Bateman's conclusions go beyond confirmatory studies to test alternative hypotheses to explain the relationship between mate number and reproductive success.

RevDate: 2022-03-09
CmpDate: 2012-01-17

Reid JB, JJ Ross (2011)

Mendel's genes: toward a full molecular characterization.

Genetics, 189(1):3-10.

The discipline of classical genetics is founded on the hereditary behavior of the seven genes studied by Gregor Mendel. The advent of molecular techniques has unveiled much about the identity of these genes. To date, four genes have been sequenced: A (flower color), LE (stem length), I (cotyledon color), and R (seed shape). Two of the other three genes, GP (pod color) and FA (fasciation), are amenable to candidate gene approaches on the basis of their function, linkage relationships, and synteny between the pea and Medicago genomes. However, even the gene (locus) identity is not known for certain for the seventh character, the pod form, although it is probably V. While the nature of the mutations used by Mendel cannot be determined with certainty, on the basis of the varieties available in Europe in the 1850s, we can speculate on their nature. It turns out that these mutations are attributable to a range of causes-from simple base substitutions and changes to splice sites to the insertion of a transposon-like element. These findings provide a fascinating connection between Mendelian genetics and molecular biology that can be used very effectively in teaching new generations of geneticists. Mendel's characters also provide novel insights into the nature of the genes responsible for characteristics of agronomic and consumer importance.

RevDate: 2021-10-20
CmpDate: 2012-09-06

Montoliu L (2012)

Mendel: a simple excel workbook to compare the observed and expected distributions of genotypes/phenotypes in transgenic and knockout mouse crosses involving up to three unlinked loci by means of a χ2 test.

Transgenic research, 21(3):677-681.

The analysis of transgenic and knockout mice always involves the establishment of matings with individuals carrying different loci, segregating independently, whose presence is expected among the progeny, according to a Mendelian distribution. The appearance of distorted inheritance ratios suggests the existence of unexpected lethal or sub-lethal phenotypes associated with some genotypes. These situations are common in a number of cases, including: testing transgenic founder mice for germ-line transmission of their transgenes; setting up heterozygous crosses to obtain homozygous individuals, both for transgenic and knockout mice; establishing matings between floxed mouse lines and suitable cre transgenic mouse lines, etc. The Pearson's χ(2) test can be used to assess the significance of the observed frequencies of genotypes/phenotypes in relation to the expected values, in order to determine whether the observed cases fit the expected distribution. Here, I describe a simple Excel workbook to compare the observed and expected distributions of genotypes/phenotypes in transgenic and knockout mouse crosses involving up to three unlinked loci by means of a χ(2) test. The file is freely available for download from my laboratory's web page at: http://www.cnb.csic.es/~montoliu/Mendel.xls .

RevDate: 2011-07-27
CmpDate: 2011-08-18

Lorenzano P (2011)

What would have happened if Darwin had known Mendel (or Mendel's work)?.

History and philosophy of the life sciences, 33(1):3-49.

The question posed by the title is usually answered by saying that the "synthesis" between the theory of evolution by natural selection and classical genetics, which took place in 1930s-40s, would have taken place much earlier if Darwin had been aware of Mendel and his work. What is more, it nearly happened: it would have been enough if Darwin had cut the pages of the offprint of Mendel's work that was in his library and read them! Or, if Mendel had come across Darwin in London or paid him a visit at his house in the outskirts! (on occasion of Mendel's trip in 1862 to that city). The aim of the present paper is to provide elements for quite a different answer, based on further historical evidence, especially on Mendel's works, some of which mention Darwins's studies.

RevDate: 2022-03-09
CmpDate: 2012-04-17

Ellis TH, Hofer JM, Timmerman-Vaughan GM, et al (2011)

Mendel, 150 years on.

Trends in plant science, 16(11):590-596.

Mendel's paper 'Versuche ĂĽber Pflanzen-Hybriden' is the best known in a series of studies published in the late 18th and 19th centuries that built our understanding of the mechanism of inheritance. Mendel investigated the segregation of seven gene characters of pea (Pisum sativum), of which four have been identified. Here, we review what is known about the molecular nature of these genes, which encode enzymes (R and Le), a biochemical regulator (I) and a transcription factor (A). The mutations are: a transposon insertion (r), an amino acid insertion (i), a splice variant (a) and a missense mutation (le-1). The nature of the three remaining uncharacterized characters (green versus yellow pods, inflated versus constricted pods, and axial versus terminal flowers) is discussed.

RevDate: 2021-10-20
CmpDate: 2014-06-07

Wolfe AJ (2012)

The cold war context of the golden jubilee, or, why we think of mendel as the father of genetics.

Journal of the history of biology, 45(3):389-414.

In September 1950, the Genetics Society of America (GSA) dedicated its annual meeting to a "Golden Jubilee of Genetics" that celebrated the 50th anniversary of the rediscovery of Mendel's work. This program, originally intended as a small ceremony attached to the coattails of the American Institute of Biological Sciences (AIBS) meeting, turned into a publicity juggernaut that generated coverage on Mendel and the accomplishments of Western genetics in countless newspapers and radio broadcasts. The Golden Jubilee merits historical attention as both an intriguing instance of scientific commemoration and as an early example of Cold War political theatre. Instead of condemning either Lysenko or Soviet genetics, the Golden Jubilee would celebrate Mendel - and, not coincidentally, the practical achievements in plant and animal breeding his work had made possible. The American geneticists' focus on the achievements of Western genetics as both practical and theoretical, international, and, above all, non-ideological and non-controversial, was fully intended to demonstrate the success of the Western model of science to both the American public and scientists abroad at a key transition point in the Cold War. An implicit part of this article's argument, therefore, is the pervasive impact of the Cold War in unanticipated corners of postwar scientific culture.

RevDate: 2010-12-20
CmpDate: 2011-05-03

Westerlund JF, DJ Fairbanks (2010)

Gregor Mendel's classic paper and the nature of science in genetics courses.

Hereditas, 147(6):293-303.

The discoveries of Gregor Mendel, as described by Mendel in his 1866 paper Versuche uber Pflanzen-Hybriden (Experiments on plant hybrids), can be used in undergraduate genetics and biology courses to engage students about specific nature of science characteristics and their relationship to four of his major contributions to genetics. The use of primary source literature as an instructional tool to enhance genetics students' understanding of the nature of science helps students more clearly understand how scientists work and how the science of genetics has evolved as a discipline. We offer a historical background of how the nature of science developed as a concept and show how Mendel's investigations of heredity can enrich biology and genetics courses by exemplifying the nature of science.

RevDate: 2022-03-09
CmpDate: 2011-03-07

Hellens RP, Moreau C, Lin-Wang K, et al (2010)

Identification of Mendel's white flower character.

PloS one, 5(10):e13230.

BACKGROUND: The genetic regulation of flower color has been widely studied, notably as a character used by Mendel and his predecessors in the study of inheritance in pea.

We used the genome sequence of model legumes, together with their known synteny to the pea genome to identify candidate genes for the A and A2 loci in pea. We then used a combination of genetic mapping, fast neutron mutant analysis, allelic diversity, transcript quantification and transient expression complementation studies to confirm the identity of the candidates.

CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: We have identified the pea genes A and A2. A is the factor determining anthocyanin pigmentation in pea that was used by Gregor Mendel 150 years ago in his study of inheritance. The A gene encodes a bHLH transcription factor. The white flowered mutant allele most likely used by Mendel is a simple G to A transition in a splice donor site that leads to a mis-spliced mRNA with a premature stop codon, and we have identified a second rare mutant allele. The A2 gene encodes a WD40 protein that is part of an evolutionarily conserved regulatory complex.

RevDate: 2009-06-15
CmpDate: 2009-09-30

Orel V (2009)

The "useful questions of heredity" before Mendel.

The Journal of heredity, 100(4):421-423.

Now Emeritus Head of the Mendelianum (Mendel Museum) in Brno, Czech Republic, VĂ­tezslav Orel began his academic career as a student at the Brno Agriculture University. His work was interrupted first by the Nazi invasion and then by the communist revolution, when the science of genetics was denounced and replaced by Lysenko pseudogenetics. V. O. was dismissed from his position at the Poultry Research Institute and assigned to work at a small duck farm outside Brno. When the "Lysenkoist madness" subsided, Professor Jaroslav Krizenecky (1896-1964), teacher of V. O., was allowed to develop the museum in recognition of Mendel's contributions. V. O. assisted him by conducting research on the history of Mendel and of genetics. On Jaroslav Krizenecky's death, V. O. became head of the Mendelianum. V. O. has become an internationally recognized figure in the study of the history of science, having published nearly 200 papers in Czech and 10 other languages. Orel's most recent books, published by Oxford University Press, make use of the rich archives of the Mendelianum that he helped create. Gregor Mendel-The First Geneticist (Orel 1996) is the definitive biography of Mendel, and in 2001, V. O. and co-author R. J. Wood published Genetic Prehistory in Selective Breeding: A Prelude to Mendel. (Biography from Margaret H. Peaslee).

RevDate: 2021-10-20
CmpDate: 2009-09-28

Howard JC (2009)

Why didn't Darwin discover Mendel's laws?.

Journal of biology, 8(2):15.

Darwin's focus on small quantitative variations as the raw material of evolution may have prevented him from discovering the laws of inheritance.

RevDate: 2010-11-18
CmpDate: 2010-01-11

Galton D (2009)

Did Darwin read Mendel?.

QJM : monthly journal of the Association of Physicians, 102(8):587-589.

RevDate: 2022-04-10
CmpDate: 2008-08-19

Aubry S, Mani J, S Hörtensteiner (2008)

Stay-green protein, defective in Mendel's green cotyledon mutant, acts independent and upstream of pheophorbide a oxygenase in the chlorophyll catabolic pathway.

Plant molecular biology, 67(3):243-256.

Type C stay-green mutants are defined as being defective in the pathway of chlorophyll breakdown, which involves pheophorbide a oxygenase (PAO), required for loss of green color. By analyzing senescence parameters, such as protein degradation, expression of senescence-associated genes and loss of photosynthetic capacity, we demonstrate that JI2775, the green cotyledon (i) pea line used by Gregor Mendel to establish the law of genetics, is a true type C stay-green mutant. STAY-GREEN (SGR) had earlier been shown to map to the I locus. The defect in JI2775 is due to both reduced expression of SGR and loss of SGR protein function. Regulation of PAO through SGR had been proposed. By determining PAO protein abundance and activity, we show that PAO is unaffected in JI2775. Furthermore we show that pheophorbide a accumulation in the mutant is independent of PAO. When silencing SGR expression in Arabidopsis pao1 mutant, both pheophorbide a accumulation and cell death phenotype, typical features of pao1, are lost. These results confirm that SGR function within the chlorophyll catabolic pathway is independent and upstream of PAO.

RevDate: 2019-11-10
CmpDate: 2008-04-03

Peaslee MH, V Orel (2007)

The evolutionary ideas of F. M. (Ladimir) Klacel, teacher of Gregor Mendel.

Biomedical papers of the Medical Faculty of the University Palacky, Olomouc, Czechoslovakia, 151(1):151-155.

Abstract: A philosopher and teacher, F. M. (Ladimir) Klacel (1808-1882), educated in what is now the Czech Republic, developed his own explanation for the origin and interaction of living organisms. Klácel, a member of the Augustinian Monastery in Brno, influenced his younger colleague, Friar Gregor Mendel, who went on to formulate concepts in heredity that are still recognized for their profound insight. A mutual interest in the natural sciences of these two friends provided a basis for their discussions of the relationship between religion, evolution, and society. Klacel's outspoken defense of his proposals caused him to lose favor with both the Church and the authorities, and he immigrated to America in 1869. His failing health and inability to communicate with the English-speaking populace, unfortunately, limited his influence in his new environs. In this paper we trace the roots of Klacel's philosophy and elucidate his incorporation of ideas from Hegel, Darwin, and others. An investigation of Klacel's recipe for a successful society reveals his belief in the universality of life and his optimistic hope for human achievement.

RevDate: 2022-04-10
CmpDate: 2007-01-16

Armstead I, Donnison I, Aubry S, et al (2007)

Cross-species identification of Mendel's I locus.

Science (New York, N.Y.), 315(5808):73.

A key gene involved in plant senescence, mutations of which partially disable chlorophyll catabolism and confer stay-green leaf and cotyledon phenotypes, has been identified in Pisum sativum, Arabidopsis thaliana, and Festuca pratensis by using classical and molecular genetics and comparative genomics. A stay-green locus in F. pratensis is syntenically equivalent to a similar stay-green locus on rice chromosome 9. Functional testing in Arabidopsis of a homolog of the rice candidate gene revealed (i) senescence-associated gene expression and (ii) a stay-green phenotype after RNA interference silencing. Genetic mapping in pea demonstrated cosegregation with the yellow/green cotyledon polymorphism (I/i) first reported by Gregor Mendel in 1866.

RevDate: 2006-12-22
CmpDate: 2007-01-31

Hackett S, Feldheim K, M Alvey (2006)

Genes and genius: the inheritance of Gregor Mendel.

DNA and cell biology, 25(12):655-658.

RevDate: 2006-10-31
CmpDate: 2007-01-05

Tan SY, J Brown (2006)

Gregor Mendel (1822-1884): man of God and science.

Singapore medical journal, 47(11):922-923.

RevDate: 2019-11-10
CmpDate: 2007-02-20

Richmond ML (2006)

The 1909 Darwin celebration. Reexamining evolution in the light of Mendel, mutation, and meiosis.

Isis; an international review devoted to the history of science and its cultural influences, 97(3):447-484.

In June 1909, scientists and dignitaries from 167 different countries gathered in Cambridge to celebrate the hundredth anniversary of Charles Darwin's birth and the fiftieth anniversary of the publication of Origin of Species. The event was one of the most magnificent commemorations in the annals of science. Delegates gathered within the cloisters of Cambridge University not only to honor the "hero" of evolution but also to reassess the underpinnings of Darwinism at a critical juncture. With the mechanism of natural selection increasingly under attack, evolutionary theory was in disarray. Against this backdrop, biologists weighed the impact of several new developments--the rediscovery of Mendel's laws of heredity, de Vriesian mutation theory, and the linkage of sex-cell division (recently named "meiosis") to the mechanism of heredity. The 1909 Darwin celebration thus represents a significant watershed in the history of modem biology that allows historians to assess the status of evolution prior to the advent of the chromosome theory of genetics.

RevDate: 2006-09-14
CmpDate: 2006-10-18

Orel V (2005)

Contested memory: debates over the nature of Mendel's paradigm.

Hereditas, 142(2005):98-102.

RevDate: 2019-09-17
CmpDate: 2007-03-15

Sclater A (2006)

The extent of Charles Darwin's knowledge of Mendel.

Journal of biosciences, 31(2):191-193.

RevDate: 2018-12-01
CmpDate: 2006-07-25

Nivet C (2006)

[1848: Gregor Mendel, the monk who wanted to be a citizen].

Medecine sciences : M/S, 22(4):430-433.

This article proposes a previously unpublished French translation of a petition, in German, addressed by six Augustinian friars to the Constitutional Parliament of Vienna in the revolutionary year 1848. The petition states that members of religious orders are deprived of civil rights and demands that they be given citizenship ; it also contains a bitter attack on the monastic institution. We suggest that Mendel was the author of this text, which he signed and actually hand-wrote.

RevDate: 2016-11-24
CmpDate: 2005-12-09

Liu Y (2005)

Darwin and Mendel: who was the pioneer of genetics?.

Rivista di biologia, 98(2):305-322.

Although Mendel is now widely recognized as the founder of genetics, historical studies have shown that he did not in fact propose the modern concept of paired characters linked to genes, nor did he formulate the two "Mendelian laws" in the form now given. Furthermore, Mendel was accused of falsifying his data, and Mendelism has been met with scepticism because of its failure to provide scientific explanation for evolution, to furnish a basis for the process of genetic assimilation and to explain the inheritance of acquired characters, graft hybridization and many other facts. Darwin was the first to clearly describe almost all genetical phenomena of fundamental importance, and was the first to present a developmental theory of heredity--Pangenesis, which not only greatly influenced many subsequent theories of inheritance, particularly those of de Vries, Galton, Brooks and Weismann, but also tied all aspects of variation, heredity and development together, provided a mechanism for most of the observable facts, and is supported by increasing evidence. It has also been indicated that Darwin's influence on Mendel, primarily from The Origin, is evident. The word "gene" was derived from "pangen", itself a derivative of "Pangenesis" which Darwin had coined. It seems that Darwin should have been regarded as the pioneer, if not of transmissional genetics, of developmental genetics and molecular genetics.

RevDate: 2007-04-13
CmpDate: 2005-01-07

Nivet C (2004)

[An enigmatic disease in Gregor Mendel's life].

Medecine sciences : M/S, 20(11):1050-1053.

The great value of the experimental and theoretical work of Gregor Mendel has been recognized more than thirty five years after its publication; in this article, we suggest that his personality has still to be rediscovered.

RevDate: 2019-05-03
CmpDate: 2003-12-10

Dunn PM (2003)

Gregor Mendel, OSA (1822-1884), founder of scientific genetics.

Archives of disease in childhood. Fetal and neonatal edition, 88(6):F537-9.

Gregor Mendel, an Augustinian monk and part-time school teacher, undertook a series of brilliant hybridisation experiments with garden peas between 1857 and 1864 in the monastery gardens and, using statistical methods for the first time in biology, established the laws of heredity, thereby establishing the discipline of genetics.

RevDate: 2004-11-17
CmpDate: 2002-09-03

Pai Dhungat JV (2002)

Postal stamps released on John Gregor Mendel (1822-1884).

The Journal of the Association of Physicians of India, 50:929.

RevDate: 2010-11-18
CmpDate: 2002-06-27

Kemp M (2002)

Science in culture: peas without pictures--Gregor Mendel and the mathematical birth of modern genetics.

Nature, 417(6888):490.

RevDate: 2018-11-30
CmpDate: 2002-03-19

Zuckerberg C (2001)

[Gregor Johann Mendel (1822-1884)].

Medicina, 61(6):903-904.

RevDate: 2021-05-27
CmpDate: 2001-04-05

Jay V (2001)

Gregor Johann Mendel.

Archives of pathology & laboratory medicine, 125(3):320-321.

RevDate: 2019-11-04
CmpDate: 2001-02-15

Lenay C (2000)

Hugo De Vries: from the theory of intracellular pangenesis to the rediscovery of Mendel.

Comptes rendus de l'Academie des sciences. Serie III, Sciences de la vie, 323(12):1053-1060.

On the basis of the article by the Dutch botanist Hugo De Vries 'On the law of separation of hybrids' published in the Reports of the Académie des Sciences in 1900, and the beginning of the controversy about priority with Carl Correns and Erich von Tschermak, I consider the question of the posthumous influence of the Mendel paper. I examine the construction of the new theoretical framework which enabled its reading in 1900 as a clear and acceptable presentation of the rules of the transmission of hereditary characters. In particular, I analyse the introduction of the idea of determinants of organic characters, understood as separable material elements which can be distributed randomly in descendants. Starting from the question of heredity, such as it was defined by Darwin in 1868, and after its critical developments by August Weismann, Hugo De Vries was able to suggest such an idea in his Intracellular Pangenesis. He then laid out a programme of research which helps us to understand the 'rediscovery' published in 1900.

RevDate: 2019-11-04
CmpDate: 2001-02-15

Orel V, RJ Wood (2000)

Essence and origin of Mendel's discovery.

Comptes rendus de l'Academie des sciences. Serie III, Sciences de la vie, 323(12):1037-1041.

In early 19th-century Moravia, breeders of animals and plants joined with other interested citizens in the Moravian and Silesian Agricultural Society to debate economic priorities. Several of the senior members had a profound influence upon breeding theory: J.K. Nestler, Professor of Natural History and Agriculture at the University of Olomouc, left a collection of influential writings. In the context of sheep breeding he defined 'inheritance capacity' (Vererbungsfähigkeit), 'hereditary history' (Vererbungsgeschichte) and 'developmental history' (Entwicklungsgeschichte). His linking of the last two terms, as two sides of the same coin, puts Mendel's use of the second one in context. Professor F. Diebl taught the same topics as Nestler at the Philosophical Institute in Brno, with a bias towards plants. Diebl's lectures were attended by Mendel who gained top marks in three examinations. Diebl stressed the importance of artificial pollination to produce new varieties and recognised peas and beans as suitable subjects for the procedure. Prelate Cyrill Napp, abbot before Mendel, had a deep interest in heredity and how it was transmitted through both sexes. He generously supported Mendel's research. A happy blend of economic and academic influences, together with original talent and inner drive, led to Mendel's great discovery.

RevDate: 2018-11-30
CmpDate: 2000-12-28

Anonymous (2000)

MENDEL-BRNO 2000. Conference on DNA structure and interactions. Brno, Czech Republic, July 19-23, 2000. Abstracts.

Journal of biomolecular structure & dynamics, 17(6):1117-1183.

RevDate: 2019-11-04
CmpDate: 2000-10-12

Orel V, RJ Wood (2000)

Scientific animal breeding in Moravia before and after the rediscovery of Mendel's theory.

The Quarterly review of biology, 75(2):149-157.

Leading Moravian sheep breeders, who joined with university professors and other educated citizens to form a Sheep Breeders' Society in 1814, looked to science to provide a reliable basis for breeding. Their activities reached a climax in the 1830s, when they defined and focused on heredity as the central research goal. Among the members taking part was Abbot Cyrill F Napp, who in 1843 would accept Mendel into the monastery. The contributions of Abbot Napp to the sheep breeders' view of heredity are here described. After 1900, when Moravian animal breeding sought to embrace Mendelism, in competition with other theories, a major influence was exerted by Jaroslav KrĂ­zeneckĂ˝ (1896-1964). In 1963, KrĂ­zeneckĂ˝ accepted responsibility for establishing the Mendel Museum (Mendelianum) in Brno as a vehicle for historical research into the origin and essence of Mendel's discovery.

RevDate: 2019-08-16
CmpDate: 1999-06-07

Chudley AE (1998)

Genetic landmarks through philately--Gregor Johann Mendel (1822-1884).

Clinical genetics, 54(2):121-123.

RevDate: 2019-05-01
CmpDate: 1998-05-28

Haas LF (1998)

Gregor Johann Mendel (1822-84).

Journal of neurology, neurosurgery, and psychiatry, 64(5):587.

RevDate: 2019-05-16
CmpDate: 1998-02-27

Pollack R (1998)

Darwin and Mendel versus Watson and Crick.

FASEB journal : official publication of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology, 12(2):149-150.

RevDate: 2007-11-15
CmpDate: 1997-11-19

Corwin RD (1997)

Point of view: from Gregor Mendel to coronary atherosclerosis.

Medicine and health, Rhode Island, 80(10):348-350.

RevDate: 2018-11-13
CmpDate: 1995-03-20

Hirschhorn R (1995)

Genetic mosaicism: what Gregor Mendel didn't know.

The Journal of clinical investigation, 95(2):443-444.

RevDate: 2018-11-30
CmpDate: 1995-03-06

Anonymous (1994)

International Congress on the Occasion of the 40th Anniversary of the Foundation of the Gregor Mendel Institute: Twin Study Today. Rome, Italy, 24-25 February 1994. Proceedings and abstracts.

Acta geneticae medicae et gemellologiae, 43(1-2):3-161.

RevDate: 2006-07-19
CmpDate: 1997-09-22

Orel V (1993)

The implausibility of Mendel's theory before 1900.

Folia mendeliana, 28-29:41-47.

Attention is paid to the category of the plausibility of Mendel's terminology in formulating the research problem, in describing experimental model and research method and in explaining his theory in the historical context of the long lasting enigma of generation, hybridization and heredity. The new research problem of heredity derived from the enigma of generation was plausible for the sheep breeders in Brno in 1836-1837 who also formulated the research question: what and how is inherited? But they did not find an approach to the experimental investigation. Later in 1852 the research problem of heredity was formulated by the physiologist of the Göttingen University, R. Wagner, who also outlined the method of crossing animals or artifical fertilization of plants for the investigation of the enigma of generation and heredity. But he could not carry out the recommended experiments at the University. His proposal remained without echo. Mendel first mentioned the motivation for his research arising from plant breeding experience and then from the experiments with plant crossing by botanists. He delivered his lectures in Brno to the community of naturalists, who paid attention to the appearance of hybrids in nature, but were not interested in plant breeding. After describing research model and experimental method Mendel presented the sequence of hypotheses proved in experiments and explained the origin and development of hybrids and at the same time also the mechanism of fertilization and of transmission of traits, what was heredity without using the term. The listeners of his lectures and later the readers of his paper did not understand his explanation. ...

RevDate: 2004-11-17
CmpDate: 1992-12-11

Riedel M (1992)

[Johann Gregor Mendel].

Deutsche medizinische Wochenschrift (1946), 117(45):1737-1738.

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