Gregor Johann Mendel was born in Hyncice (Czechoslovakia, now the Czech Republic) on July 20, 1822. The biologist, mathematician and Augustinian friar, is considered in the scientific world, the forerunner of modern genetics, for his experiments with pea plants and for his observations on hereditary characteristics.
The small
Johann He grew up at a time when his country was part of the Austrian Empire. The son of a peasant, he had two younger sisters, Veronika and Theresia. During his childhood the boy worked as a gardener, but he always had dreams of a great future for himself. He decided to undertake his studies by enrolling in school in Troppau (now Opava), after which he attended a philosophical institute in Olmütz (now Olomouc) for two years. The stay in the new city was, however, difficult: Mendel did not have a roof, he had little money and the language problem.
In 1843 he entered the monastery of St. Thomas in Brunn (now Brno), welcomed by the Augustinian friars and Abbot Cyrill Napp. The monastery privileged the academic commitment to prayer, considering study as the highest form of prayer. Mendel He took the opportunity to study his favorite subjects, mathematics, meteorology, and especially botany. In this context he managed to earn his laurels in biology and mathematics.
On August 6, 1847, after five years, he was ordained a priest, taking the name of Gregor. Two years later he began working as a teacher in a secondary school in Znaim (now Znojmo); here he would try several times to pass the exam to become a teacher, and only succeeded after several failures.
In 1851 Napp gave the opportunity to Mendel to enroll in the Imperial University of Vienna. He made the most of this opportunity and soon became an assistant at the Institute of Physics, a role usually reserved for the best students.
Two years later he met Andreas von Ettingshausen and Franz Unger; His influence was central to the discoveries of Mendel. The first taught him combinatorial theory, the second illustrated the most advanced techniques of artificial pollination.
After years spent in Vienna, in July 1853, Gregor mendel he returned to the monastery as a teacher, mainly of physics, mathematics, and biology. Here he developed his skills as a researcher and scientist. Mendel he also liked to dedicate himself to meteorology, publishing various works in this field. Also dedicated to the abbey garden, he discovered the different characteristics of plants, thanks to whose experience he would reveal – after several years of work – the mechanisms of inheritance.
Gregor mendel he carried out experiments growing plants and analyzing the results for seven long years; the pea plants that participated in their experiments numbered almost 28,000; It took him two years to develop his scientific results, which led to three generalizations that in the scientific field – specifically in genetics – assume historical value: today they are known as the “Mendel’s Laws of Inheritance“.
The basic concept conceived is very innovative: Mendel deduced that heredity is a phenomenon due to specific agents contained in the parents, contrary to what was believed up to that time. However, one cannot even talk about genetics yet, and it is improper to think about Mendel as the father of this branch of science.
After seven years of selection, Mendel identified seven “pure lines”: seven varieties of peas that differed in highly visible characters (seed shape: smooth or wrinkled, seed color: yellow or green, etc.). The characteristics of the pea plant were particularly suitable for the study, since they have a simple reproductive system, thanks to which the monk was able to pollinate his vegetables at will. His studies included such a large number of specimens, since Mendel he knew the laws of probability, which are manifested when the sample analyzed is very large.
Early 1865 Mendel he had the opportunity to expose his life’s work to an audience of around forty people, including biologists, chemists, botanists and doctors; held two conferences, February 8 and March 8. But none of the participants was able to understand the importance of their work. The following year he published his results, having forty copies printed which he sent to the most important scientists on the continent. The only person who seemed interested in his work was Carl Nägeli, a botany professor at the University of Munich, with whom he remained in contact for a long time.
Mendel he first applied mathematics, in particular statistics and probability theory, to the study of biological inheritance. Thirty-five years after the discovery of the laws of MendelIt would be the Dutch Hugo de Vries, the German Carl Correns and the Austrian Erich von Tschermak (after reaching the same conclusions as Mendel) who would recognize his merits. This is how the work of Mendel could get a deserved place in the history of science, only in the year 1900.
In the last years of his life, Mendel he was bitter about his personal and professional failures, since he was no longer able to reproduce the same statistical relationship with other plants, however, he did not lose his humor.
Invested as abbot, he had to use all his energy in a tough fight against the Austrian government, which, to reduce financial difficulties, had enacted a law imposing high taxes on monasteries. Because of his refusal to pay taxes, the government ensured that Mendel was gradually isolated.
Gregor mendel he died in Brno of acute nephritis – called Bright’s disease – on January 6, 1884, at the age of 61.
The science of heredity received the name of genetics in 1906 thanks to William Bateson; the term “gene” was introduced even later, in 1909, by Wilhem Johansen.
At the beginning of the 20th century, with the rediscovery of the theories of Mendel, which correlate to some extent with Charles Darwin’s hypothesis of evolution; This is how the “modern synthesis” was born, the most influential theory of evolution, which would remain in vogue until the 1970s. This theory postulates the gradual selection of the most favorable specimens, in the light of genetic theories, following an adaptation of the species to the environment.