Gregor Mendel
Mendel made the observation that pea plants had characteristics that varied from plant to plant.
He carried out experiments crossing (mating) plants with different characteristics.
By observing the characteristics of the offspring produced, he was able to draw conclusions about the inheritance of characteristics.
Even though he didn’t know about chromosomes or genes he was able to conclude the following:
- Characteristics are determined by factors within the organism (now known to be genes)
- That the factors (genes) can be present in 2 different forms (now known as alleles)
- That the 2 factors (alleles) in an individual separate during gamete formation (now known as meiosis)