Message on the topic Gregor Mendel the founder of genetics. Fundamentals of genetic knowledge in the works of Gregor Mendel

Gregor Johann Mendel (July 20, 1822, Heinzendorf, Austrian Empire - January 6, 1884, Brno, Austria-Hungary) was an Austrian biologist, the founder of the theory of heredity, known as Mendelism. His discoveries became the basis of modern genetics.

The future scientist was born into a peasant family. He showed interest in nature as a child, working as a gardener. For about 2 years he studied at the philosophical classes of the Olomouc Institute (Czech Republic). Then his life took a very interesting turn.

1843 - became a monk of the Augustinian monastery of St. Thomas (Brno, Czech Republic). After the tonsure, he received the name Gregor. In a new field, he found financial support, and later patronage.

1844-1848 - Studied at the Brünn Theological Institute.

1847 - became a priest. At the same time, he was engaged in self-education, replacing teachers of mathematics and Greek in one of the schools. But when he passed the exam for the title of teacher, he received unsatisfactory marks in geology and biology.

1849-1851 - was a teacher of mathematics, Greek and Latin at the Znojmo gymnasium.

1851-1853 - Studied at the University of Vienna. It was at this time that Gregor Mendel became interested in the process of plant hybridization.

1854 - began teaching natural history and physics at the Higher Real School Brunne.

1856 - again failed the exam in biology, so he remained a monk, and later became abbot of the Augustinian monastery in Brno.

1856-1863 - began to conduct experiments on peas, as a result of which laws were formulated that explained the mechanism of inheritance ("Laws of Mendel"). All experiments were carried out by the abbot in a small parish garden.

1865 - in one of the volumes of the Proceedings of the Brunnian Society of Naturalists, the results of Mendel's experiments were published. True, this work did not arouse much interest among contemporaries. Although the scientist himself was convinced that he had made an extremely important discovery. But after conducting experiments on crossing varieties of hawks, and then varieties of bees, he lost faith in his discovery. Note that at that time some features of the mechanisms of fertilization of hawks and bees were not yet known.

1868 - becomes abbot of the Starobrnensky monastery. At this time, he ceased to engage in biological research.

1884 - Gregor Mendel dies. He was never recognized by his contemporaries. Interestingly, the inscription “My time will come!” Was engraved on his grave.

The importance of the conclusions made by Mendel, scientists realized only at the beginning of the 20th century. At this time, a number of researchers rediscovered the laws of inheritance, previously derived by the priest. In fact, the amateur scientist discovered important principles that had been overlooked by many prominent biologists before him.

In the Old Brno Augustinian Monastery, located on the outskirts of Brno, a monument to Mendel was erected. Manuscripts, drawings and other documents of Mendel are in a specially created museum. Here you can also see an old microscope and other instruments that the scientist used during the experiments.

A university and a square in Brno are named after Mendel, as well as the 1st Czech scientific station established in Antarctica.

Johann Mendel was born on July 20, 1882 in the small village of Heinzendorf of the Austrian Empire in a family of peasants. Passion for biology in his biography Mendel showed early. For two years he attended the Olmutz Institute, after which he became a monk in the Augustinian monastery of St. Thomas.

Then from 1844 to 1848 he studied at the theological institute in Brunn. But deep knowledge in many areas Mendel received through self-education. He taught for a short time, after which he went to study at the University of Vienna. It was there that Gregor Mendel devoted much time in his biography to the study of hybrid descendants of plants. For many years (1856 - 1863) he experimented on peas, and as a result he formulated the laws of inheritance ("Mendel's laws").

His works were published, but did not interest the well-known botanists of the time. Then, in the biography of Georg Mendel, several more experiments were made (on a hawk, on bees), but the result was unsuccessful. So Mendel left his biological experiments, became the abbot of the monastery.

The mechanism of inheritance, discovered thanks to the biography of Grigory Mendel, interested scientists only at the beginning of the 20th century.

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Question 1. Give definitions of the concepts of "heredity" and "variability".

Heredity is the ability of living organisms to transmit their characteristics, properties and developmental features to the next generation. It ensures the material and functional continuity of generations, is the reason that the new generation is similar to the previous one. At the heart of the inheritance of traits is the transfer of genetic material to offspring.

Variability is the ability of living organisms to exist in various forms, that is, to acquire characteristics in the process of individual development that are different from the qualities of other individuals of the same species, including their parents. Variability can be determined by the characteristics of the individual's genes, their combination, etc., or maybe by the interaction of the individual and the environment. In the latter case, even genetically identical organisms are capable of acquiring different features and properties during ontogenesis.

Question 2. Who first discovered the patterns of inheritance of traits?

The first person who discovered the laws of inheritance of traits was the Austrian scientist Gregor Mendel (1822-1884). As a monk at a monastery in Brno (Brno, modern Czech Republic), he crossed different varieties of peas for eight years (1856-1863). In 1865, G. Mendel reported on the results of his experiments at a meeting of the Society of Naturalists in Brunn. The work was only appreciated after 1900, when three botanists (Hugo de Vries in Holland, Carl Correns in Germany, and Erich Tschermak in Austria) independently rediscovered the patterns of inheritance.

Question 3. On what plants did G. Mendel experiment?

Mendel conducted experiments on different varieties of peas. For his experiments, he used 22 varieties of peas, differing in seven ways. In total, during the research, he studied more than ten thousand plants.

Question 4. Thanks to what features of the organization of the work of G. Mendel managed to discover the laws of inheritance of traits?

Gregor Mendel managed to discover the laws of inheritance of traits due to the following features of his work: material from the site

• the experimental plant was the pea, an unpretentious plant with great fecundity and yielding several crops a year;
• pea is a self-pollinating plant, which avoids the accidental ingress of foreign pollen. Mendel, in experiments on cross-pollination, removed the stamens and transferred the pollen of one parent plant to the pistil of the other with a brush;
• Mendel explored qualitative, clearly distinguishable traits, each of which was controlled by a single gene;
• when processing the data, the scientist kept a strict quantitative record of all plants and seeds.

What contribution to biology, Austrian naturalist, botanist and religious figure, monk, founder of the doctrine of heredity, you will learn from this article.

Gregor Mendel discoveries

The twentieth century was marked by a sensational discovery in the field of biology. Three botanists Cermak, de Vries and Correns stated that 35 years ago, a certain Czech monk and scientist Gregor Mendel, who was unknown to anyone, discovered the laws of inheritance of individual traits.

It is worth noting that Mendel was born into a poor peasant family of a gardener. His parents did not have the means to give their son a decent education. Therefore, the young man graduated only from the gymnasium and dreamed of a university.

One day he went to the abbey and took monastic orders. He pursued one goal - knowledge. The monastery had a rich library, and he got the opportunity to study at the university. In addition, Gregor was fond of biology, and there was a garden near his cell. And he decided to make experiments on crossing plants. Peas acted as a test subject. For his experiments, the monk chose 7 pairs of varieties of this cultivated plant. Each pair of peas had its own difference. For example, the seeds of the first pair had a smooth structure, while the second pair had a wrinkled one; in one, the stem was no more than 60 cm, while in the second it reached 2 m; the color of the flower in one variety was white, and in the other pair - purple.

For the first three years, Mendel planted selected varieties to make sure they were free of impurities. Then the crossbreeding experiments began. During the experiments, he found that one of the plants is dominant and its characteristics suppressed the features of the second plant. Mendel called this process "recessive". So it was opened first law of heredity in biology. The following summer, he crossed the resulting red-colored hybrids with the primary variety of red-colored peas. And what was his surprise when the plant bloomed and the flowers turned out to be white. This phenomenon, the appearance of white color after one generation, Mendel called the "splitting of signs." So was discovered the second law of heredity in biology. Unfortunately, his discovery had no success. Only 140 years later, humanity appreciated his experiments in biology at their true worth.

(1822-1884) Austrian naturalist, founder of the theory of heredity

Gregor Johann Mendel was born on July 22, 1822 in the village of Hinchitsy on the territory of modern Czech Republic in a peasant family. His father instilled in him a love for working in the garden, and Johann kept this love for the rest of his life.

The future scientist grew up as a smart and inquisitive boy. An elementary school teacher, noticing the outstanding abilities of his student, often told his father that Johann should continue his studies.

However, the Mendel family lived in poverty, and therefore it was not easy to refuse Johann's help. In addition, the boy, helping his father to run the household, early learned to take care of fruit trees, plants, and besides, he was well versed in flowers. And yet the father wanted to give his son an education. And eleven-year-old Johann, leaving home, continued his studies, first at a school in Lipnik, and then at a gymnasium in Opava. But misfortune seemed to haunt the Mendel family. Four years passed, and Johann's parents could no longer pay for their son's education costs. He had to earn his own living by giving private lessons. However, Johann Mendel did not quit his studies. In his graduation certificate, received in 1840 at the end of the gymnasium, in almost all subjects it was "excellent". Mendel goes to study at Olomouc University, which he failed to finish, because the family did not have enough money not only to pay for his son's education, but also to live. And Mendel agrees with the offer of a mathematics teacher to take the veil as a monk of a monastery in the city of Brno.

In 1843, Mendel took the monastic vows and in the Augustinian monastery of Brno received a new name - Gregor. Having become a monk, Mendel was finally freed from the need and constant concern for a piece of bread. In addition, the young man had the opportunity to engage in natural sciences. In 1851, with the permission of the abbot of the monastery, Mendel moved to Vienna and began to study natural sciences at the university, devoting most of his time to physics and mathematics. But he still failed to get a diploma. Even when he entered the monastery, he received a small plot of land on which he was engaged in botany, selection and carried out his famous experiments on the hybridization of pea varieties. Mendel developed several varieties of vegetables and flowers, such as fuchsia, which was widely known among gardeners of that time.

He conducted experiments on crossing varieties of peas in the period 1856-1863. They began before the appearance of Ch. Darwin's book "The Origin of Species" and ended 4 years after its publication. Mendel carefully studied this work.

Thoughtfully, with a full understanding of the task, he chose peas as the object of his experiments. This plant, being a self-pollinator, firstly, is represented by a number of pure-line varieties; secondly, the flowers are protected from the penetration of foreign pollen, which made it possible to strictly control the reproduction processes; thirdly, the hybrids resulting from crossing pea varieties are quite prolific, and this made it possible to follow the course of inheritance of traits in a number of generations. Achieving maximum clarity of experiments, Mendel chose for analysis seven pairs of clearly different features. These differences were as follows: smooth round or wrinkled and irregularly shaped seeds, red or white flower color, tall or low plant, convex or ligamentous pod shape, etc.

With perseverance and conscientiousness that many researchers can envy, for eight years Mendel sowed peas, looked after them, transferred pollen from flower to flower and, most importantly, constantly counted how many red and white flowers, round and oblong, yellow and green peas.

The study of hybrids revealed a well-defined pattern. It turned out that only one of a pair of contrasting traits appears in hybrids, regardless of whether this trait comes from the mother or from the father. Mendel refers to them as dominant. In addition, he discovered intermediate manifestations of properties. So, for example, crossing red-flowered peas with white-flowered peas gave hybrids with pink flowers. However, the intermediate manifestation does not change anything in the laws of splitting. Investigating the offspring of hybrids, Mendel found that, along with dominant traits, some plants exhibited traits of another original parent, which do not disappear in hybrids, but go into a latent state. He called these traits recessive. The idea of ​​recessiveness of hereditary properties and the term "recessiveness" itself, as well as the term "dominance", entered genetics forever.

Having examined each trait separately, the scientist was able to accurately calculate which part of the descendants will receive, for example, smooth seeds, and which wrinkled, and established a numerical ratio for each trait. He gave a classic example of the role of mathematics in biology. The numerical ratio obtained by the scientist turned out to be quite unexpected. For every plant with white flowers, there were three plants with red flowers. At the same time, the red or white color of the flowers, for example, did not affect the color of the fruit, the height of the stem, etc. Each trait is inherited by the plant independently of the other.

Mendel's conclusions were far ahead of his time. He did not know that heredity is concentrated in the nuclei of cells, or rather, in the chromosomes of cells. The term "chromosome" did not even exist then. He didn't know what a gene was. However, the voids in the knowledge of heredity did not prevent the scientist from giving them a brilliant explanation. On February 8, 1865, at a meeting of the Society of Naturalists in Brno, the scientist made a presentation on plant hybridization. The report was met with puzzled silence. The audience did not ask a single question, it seemed that they did not understand anything in this wise mathematics.

In accordance with the then existing order, Mendel's report was sent to Vienna, Rome, St. Petersburg, Krakow and other cities. Nobody paid any attention to him. The mixture of mathematics and botany contradicted all the concepts that existed at that time. Of course, Mendel understood that his discovery was contrary to the views of other scientists on heredity, which dominated at that time. But there was another reason that pushed his discovery into the background. The fact is that during these years the evolutionary theory of Charles Darwin made its victorious march around the world. And scientists were not up to the quirks of pea offspring and the pedantic algebra of the Austrian naturalist.

Mendel soon abandoned his research on peas. The famous biologist Naegeli advised him to experiment with the hawk plant. These experiments gave strange and unexpected results. Mendel fought in vain over tiny yellowish and reddish flowers. He failed to confirm the results obtained on peas. The insidiousness of the hawk lay in the fact that the development of its seeds occurred without fertilization, and neither G. Mendel nor Nageli knew this.

Even in the hot season of passion for experiments with peas and hawk, he did not forget about his monastic and worldly affairs. In this field, his perseverance and perseverance were rewarded. In 1868, Mendel was elected to the high post of abbot of the monastery, which he held until the end of his life. And although the outstanding scientist lived a difficult life, he gratefully admitted that there were much more joyful and bright moments in it. According to him, the scientific work he did brought him great satisfaction. He was convinced that in the near future it would be recognized all over the world. And so it happened, however, after his death.

Gregor Johann Mendel died on January 6, 1884. In the obituary, among the numerous titles and merits of the scientist, there was no mention that he was the discoverer of the law of heredity.

Mendel was not mistaken in his prophecy before his death. After 16 years, on the threshold of the 20th century, the whole biological science was excited by the message about Mendel's newly discovered laws. In 1900, G. de Vries in Holland, E. Cermak in Australia, and Carl Correns in Germany independently rediscovered Mendel's laws and recognized his priority.

The rediscovery of these laws caused the rapid development of the science of heredity and variability of organisms - genetics.