Question

Who is the father of genetics?

Answer 1

The father of genetics was first to demonstrate the scientific basis of inheritance and variation by conducting a hybridization experiment and gave many rules of hereditary commonly known as Inheritance laws.

Complete Step by Step Answer:
The branch of science which deals with the inheritance, as well as the variation of characters from parents to offspring, is Genetics. Gregor Johann Mendel is known as the father of genetics as he was the first to demonstrate the scientific basis of inheritance and variation by conducting a hybridization experiment. Mendel was born on July 22, 1822. He worked on Pisum sativum (Garden pea or edible pea) for 7 years (1856-1863) and proposed the Law of inheritance in living organisms. It came to be known as Mendel’s law of inheritance. Additional Information:
Using many true- breeding pea lines, Mendel performed artificial pollination or cross- pollination experiments.
With the exception of one character with contrasting characteristics, Mendel picked 14 true- breeding pea plant varieties as pairs that were identical. It means, in the pea farm, he picked 7 characters to conduct hybridization experiments. Such characters are:

Character	Contrasting traits
Dominant	Recessive
Seed shape	Round
Seed color	Yellow
Flower color	Violet
Pod shape	Full/Inflated
Pod color	Green
Flower position	Axial
Stem height	Tall

Reasons for Mendel’s success: - Mendel applied statistical methods and mathematical logic for analyzing his results. - He kept accurate records of his experiments, giving all the details of the number and type of individuals, which are a necessity in the genetic material. - He experimented on a number of plants for the same trait and obtained hundreds of offspring. Chances of error are little in large quantities. - He tried to formulate theoretical explanations for the observed results.
Based on the monohybrid cross, Mendel proposed two general rules. These were known as Laws of inheritance. - Law of dominance: it is used to explain the expression of only one of the parent traits in a monohybrid cross in ${ F }_{ 1 }$ and expression of both in ${ F }_{ 2 }$. It also explains the proportion of 3:1 obtained in ${ F }_{ 2 }$ generations.
- Law of segregation: This law is based on the fact that the two factors of a character present in an individual don’t get blended and both the traits are recovered as such in the ${ F }_{ 2 }$ generation though one of these is not seen in ${ F }_{ 1 }$ generation. During gamete or spore formation, factors of a pair separate or segregate from each other, so that a gamete carries only one factor of a character. This ensures the purity of gametes.

Note: - Mendel was not the first to conduct these experiments, rather he was the first to consider one of three characters at one time and this was perhaps the secret of the successful experiment. - Mendel’s experiments were the extension and development of hybridization experiments on pea conducted by earlier workers like Knight and Goss. - A true breeding line is one that has undergone continuous self-pollination for many generations, demonstrating the stable inheritance and expression of the trait. - The law of dominance is not applicable universally. - A homozygous parent produces all gametes that are similar while a heterozygous parent will produce two types of gametes each having one factor with equal proportion. This is universally applicable.