ABSTRACT
The foundation of the science of genetics was laid in 1865 (published in 1866) by Gregor Mendel, when he reported principles of segregation and an independent assortment based on his careful selection of seven contrasting traits and controlled artificial hybridization experiments with the garden pea (
Pisum sativum
L.). Unfortunately, the importance of Mendel’s classic paper was not widely known or clearly appreciated until 1900, when three botanists, Carl Correns, Hugo deVries, and Erich vonTschermak, rediscovered Mendel’s laws of inheritance as a result of their own investigations (Peters, 1959).
