Gregor Mendel’s Discoveries Gregor Johann Mendel was born on July 22, 1822 to peasant parents in a small agrarian town in Czechoslovakia. During his childhood he worked as a gardener, and as a young man attended the Olmutz Philosophical Institute. In 1843 he entered an Augustinian monastery in Brunn, Czechoslovakia. He was later sent to the University of Vienna to study. By both his professors at University and his colleagues at the monastery, Mendel was inspired to study variance in plants. He commenced his study in his monastery's experimental garden. Mendel maintained little square plots in his monastery garden in which he grew strains of pea plants and experimented with different crosses. Between 1866 and 1863, Mendel cultivated and tested some 28000 pea plants. His experiments brought forward 2 generalisations which later became known as Mendel's Laws of Heredity. Mendel is known as the Father of Genetics.
	Why was Mendel so successful? Preliminary investigations were carried out to obtain familiarity with the experimental organism. All experiments were carefully planned. Meticulous care was taken in carrying out all techniques. Accurate records were kept of all the results. Sufficient data were obtained to have statistical significance. As Mendel stated, "The value of utility of any experiment are determined by the fitness of the material to the purpose for which it is used."
	Mendel's 1st Law: Principle of Segregation: Alleles account for variations in inherited characters.  For each gene, there are two alleles, one from each parent. The dominant allele will be expressed instead of the recessive allele. The two alleles for each character segregate during gamete production.
	Mendel's 2nd Law: Principle of Independent Assortment: During gamete formation the distribution of each allele from a pair of homologous chromosomes is entirely independent o the distribution of alleles of other pairs. It is the random assortment of homologous chromosomes that leads to the variety of allele recombination. in the gamete cells. Relating Topics - Random assortment - Paternal and Maternal Chromosomes