Question

Who is regarded as the father of genetics?

Answer 1

Genetics is the branch of biology that deals with the study of not only genes but genetic variations as well as heredity of different organisms. The word genetics is derived from the Greek word genetikos which stands for ‘origin’.

Complete answer:
Gregor Johann Mendel who was a scientist, mathematician and biologist is regarded as the father of genetics. Mendel was the first one to introduce the concept of inheritance which is the passing of traits from parents to their offspring. Mendel carried out his experiments using pea plants. He chose pea over other available plant species because it was a true breeding bland, it was an annual plant and also carried out self pollination. Mendel worked with seven characteristics of pea plants which are- pod shape, pod colour, plant height, seed shape, seed colour, flower position and flower colour. Mendel through his experiments showed that when a true breeding yellow pea and green pea were crossed the offspring were yellow in the first generation whereas in the second generation the ratio was one green and three yellow. Based on this result he coined the terms dominant and recessive.

Dominant traits express themselves whenever they are present and mask the recessive trait whereas the recessive traits are expressed only when both the traits were recessive. Mendel formulated three laws known as laws of inheritance based on his experiments, these were- law of dominance, law of segregation and law of independent assortment.

Note: Mendel’s rules of inheritance held true for many years unless it was found out by some scientists that in some cases deviation from Mendelism occurred such as codominance where both the dominant and recessive phenotypes were expressed, multiple alleles where traits were determined by more than two alleles and polygenic traits where more than one gene controls the trait.