Gregor Mendel's greatest contribution—now known as Mendel's laws of inheritance—stemmed from experiments he conducted with garden pea plants (Pisum sativum; 1). He chose peas, in part, because they are easy to grow, can be sown each year, and can conveniently be cross-pollinated by hand

Answer 1

. Mendel's experiments involved selectively breeding pea plants with specific traits, such as flower color, seed shape, and plant height. Through his meticulous observations and analyses of the offspring from these crosses, Mendel discovered the fundamental principles of heredity that still form the basis of modern genetics.

Mendel's first law of inheritance, known as the law of segregation, states that an individual inherits two alleles for each trait, one from each parent, and that these alleles segregate randomly during gamete formation. This explains how traits can be passed down from parents to offspring in a predictable manner.

Mendel's second law of inheritance, known as the law of independent assortment, states that different traits are inherited independently of each other. This means that the inheritance of one trait does not influence the inheritance of another trait, providing a basis for understanding how genetic diversity is generated.

Overall, Mendel's experiments with pea plants revolutionized the field of genetics and laid the foundation for our understanding of how traits are passed down from one generation to the next. His work paved the way for future advancements in genetic research and continues to be studied and celebrated in the scientific community.