The first person to explore the field of heredity was Johann Gregor Mendel (1822-1884). This Augustinian friar of St. Thomas’ Abbey in Brno carried out hybridisation experiments on differently colored varieties of pea plants during the second half of the 19th century. Using crossbreeding, he observed hereditary traits (colour of seeds, flowers and immature pods, shape of seeds and pods, plant height, and flower position) to prove that heredity is real.
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