Veritas temporis filia est: Truth is the daughter of time

Abstract

In 1865, Gregor Mendel presented the lectures 'Experiments in Plant Hybridization' concerning his results from cross-breeding experiments with different types of garden pea, performed in his monastery garden in Brno. Mendel studied easily observed pairs of opposite traits, such as purple or white flower, and discovered dominant and recessive traits. He concluded that parents pass separate and distinct factors (today called genes) on to their offspring that are responsible for inherited traits. However, the scientific community did not understand that; indeed it was the beginning of what becomes genetics. The lectures published in 1866, Mendel sent to more than 30 biologists across Europe, but almost no one commented them. In the next 35 years, these papers were only three times cited. The genetics became more important at the beginning of the 20th century, when three different research groups (Hugo de Vries, Carl Erich Correns and Erich von Tschermak with their co-workers) independently re-discovered Mendel's Laws of inheritance. However, as soon as the work was rediscovered, it created controversy. The closeness of Mendel's experimental observations to those predicted by his theories has led to numerous articles and ongoing debate about whether the data could have been obtained in the published form without some falsification. There have been many plausible arguments made for and against this view by a range of eminent geneticists and statisticians. Some have gone so far, as to suggest that the theories ensued from Mendel's two laws were not even correctly formulated in his original paper. The strongest supporters of Mendel's theory became biologist William Bateson and zoologist and geneticist Thomas Hunt Morgan. Morgan argued that genes are located on chromosomes and that the cells chromosomes hold the actual hereditary material, thus created what is now known as classical genetics. For his discovery concerning the role play by the chromosome in heredity, Morgan received the Nobel Prize in 1933. As the architect of genetic experimental and statistical analysis, Mendel remains the acknowledged father of genetics.

Rezultate ukrštanja različitih tipova vrtnog graška, koje je dobio u manastirskoj bašti u Brnu, Mendel je izneo 1865. godine u predavanju 'Eksperimenti u hibridizaciji biljaka'. Proučavajući osobine graška koje imaju lako prepozantljive dve alternative, kao što je npr. ljubičasta ili bela boja cveta, Mendel je otkrio dominantne i recesivne osobine. Zaključio je da roditelji prenose na svoje potomke posebne i različite faktore (koje danas nazivamo geni), koji su odgovorni za nasleđivanje osobina. Tadašnja naučna zajednica nije razumela da je to u stvari bio početak razvoja genetike. Predavanja su publikovana 1866. i Mendel ih je poslao na adresu više od 30 biologa širom Evrope, ali ih skoro niko nije komentarisao. U narednih 35 godina ovi radovi citirani su samo tri puta. Genetika je postala značajnija početkom 20. veka kada su istraživači iz tri različite istraživačke grupe (Hugo de Vries, Carl Erich Correns i Erich von Tschermak sa saradnicima), nezavisno jedan od drugih, ponovo otkrili Menedelove zakone. Međutim, odmah nakon ponovnog otkrića Mendelovih zakona došlo je do kontraverznih stavova. Mala odstupanja između eksperimentalnih i teorijskih frekvencija pokrenule su intenzivne debate o mogućnosti dobijanja takvih podataka, dok su neki izražavali sumnju da su podaci falsifikovani. Stavovi eminentnih statističara i genetičara u vezi Mendelove teorije kretali su se od njenog podržavanja do odbacivanja. Pojedinci su iznosili sumnju da teorije nisu pravilno postavljene ni u originalnom radu. Biolog Wiliam Bateson i zoolog i genetičar Thomas Hunt Morgan bili su najveće pristalice Mendelove teorije. Morgan je tvrdio da se geni nalaze na hromozomima, odnosno da hromozomi sadrže nasledni materijal, što je u suštini značilo promovisanje klasične genetike, za što je Morgan dobio Nobelovu nagradu. Kao osnivač genetičkih eksperimenata i statističke analize Mendel se smatra ocem genetike.