Did Mendel discover something hidden in pea plants?
History of biology
Did Mendel discover something hidden in pea plants?
Imagine you're growing a garden and notice some plants always produce red flowers, while others always produce white. You're puzzled why this happens.
Mendel's work suggested that traits are passed down in discrete units, not mixed like paint. These units are what we now call genes.
Example
If you cross a red-flowered plant with a white-flowered plant, the first generation always has red flowers.
Remember this
Mendel's discovery of genes explains how traits are inherited in clear, predictable patterns.
Text adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
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