Pea Genes
If he had lived to see it, Gregor Mendel, the 19th century Austrian monk
and botanist who founded the discipline of genetics, might have found this
picture to be as cool as we think it is. The slender blue filament that
snakes its way across this picture is the DNA of a pea plant. Taken with an
electron microscope, the image shows the ribbon of DNA that contains all
the genetic instructions needed to make another pea plant. Mendel's
experiments, in which he carefully self-pollinated pea plants and studied
the characteristics of succeeding generations, showed that pairs of
characteristics combine and organize themselves according to the fixed and
understood rules of mathematical formulas. From this, he learned that both
male and female equally contribute a "determining factor" and that pairs of
factors in offspring do not blend but remain distinct. These factors came
to be known as genes.
If he had lived to see it, Gregor Mendel, the 19th century Austrian monk
and botanist who founded the discipline of genetics, might have found this
picture to be as cool as we think it is. The slender blue filament that
snakes its way across this picture is the DNA of a pea plant. Taken with an
electron microscope, the image shows the ribbon of DNA that contains all
the genetic instructions needed to make another pea plant. Mendel's
experiments, in which he carefully self-pollinated pea plants and studied
the characteristics of succeeding generations, showed that pairs of
characteristics combine and organize themselves according to the fixed and
understood rules of mathematical formulas. From this, he learned that both
male and female equally contribute a "determining factor" and that pairs of
factors in offspring do not blend but remain distinct. These factors came
to be known as genes.
Image courtesy of and copyrighted by Dennis Kunkel.
