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How did Mendel arrive at his discoveries?

Nature Genetics volume 54, pages 926–933 (2022)Cite this article

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Abstract

There are few historical records concerning Gregor Johann Mendel and his work, so theories abound concerning his motivation. These theories range from Fisher’s view that Mendel was testing a fully formed previous theory of inheritance to Olby’s view that Mendel was not interested in inheritance at all, whereas textbooks often state his motivation was to understand inheritance. In this Perspective, we review current ideas about how Mendel arrived at his discoveries and then discuss an alternative scenario based on recently discovered historical sources that support the suggestion that Mendel’s fundamental research on the inheritance of traits emerged from an applied plant breeding program. Mendel recognized the importance of the new cell theory; understanding of the formation of reproductive cells and the process of fertilization explained his segregation ratios. This interest was probably encouraged by his friendship with Johann Nave, whose untimely death preceded Mendel’s first 1865 lecture by a few months. This year is the 200th anniversary of Mendel’s birth, presenting a timely opportunity to revisit the events in his life that led him to undertake his seminal research. We review existing ideas on how Mendel made his discoveries, before presenting more recent evidence.

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Fig. 1: Notes on the end page of Mendel’s copy of Gärtner’s book10.
Fig. 2: A short article in Neuigkeiten on 26 July 1861, and our English translation.
Fig. 3: Segregation of F2 seed traits in the pods of a selfed F1 pea plant.
Fig. 4: The reconstructed timeline of Mendel’s applied breeding and scientific breeding programs in peas.
Fig. 5: Fertilization of the egg cell by the pollen tube, according to Unger6 in 1852.
Fig. 6: The board of the Brünn Natural Science Society in 1862.

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Acknowledgements

We are very grateful to B. O. Bengtsson, J. Hofer, M. de Both and P. van Baarlen for critically reading and commenting on draft versions of the manuscript. T.H.N.E. gratefully acknowledges receipt of an Institute Strategic Fellowship from the John Innes Centre. P.J.v.D. thanks KeyGene for providing a supportive environment for research into the early history of genetics.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Keygene N.V, Wageningen, The Netherlands

    Peter J. van Dijk

  2. 26 Kylepark Crescent, Uddingston, UK

    Adrienne P. Jessop

  3. Department of Biochemistry and Metabolism, John Innes Centre, Norwich, UK

    T. H. Noel Ellis

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  1. Peter J. van Dijk
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P.J.v.D., A.P.J. and T.H.N.E. wrote the manuscript. All authors critically read and edited the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Peter J. van Dijk.

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Supplementary Fig. 1 and Notes 1–3

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van Dijk, P.J., Jessop, A.P. & Ellis, T.H.N. How did Mendel arrive at his discoveries?. Nat Genet 54, 926–933 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-022-01109-9

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