What is Gregor Mendel remembered for?

Gregor Mendel is remembered for devising the laws of inheritance. Gregor Mendel was a scientist and monk who, in the mid-19th century, carried out breeding experiments on plants.


One of his observations was that the inheritance of each characteristic is determined by 'units' that are passed on to descendants, and the units remain unchanged as they are passed on.

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Why was the importance of Mendel's discovery not recognised until after his death?

His findings were not published in a very well known journal. Scientists at the time didn't understand anything about genetics and so couldn't properly appreciate / contextualise his findings.

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What else was discovered to allow Mendel's findings to be understood?

You need to understand the history of Mendel's 'units', chromosomes, and genes. 


  1. In the late 19th century,  scientists observed the behaviour of chromosomes during cell division.
  2. In the early 20th century, it was observed that chromosomes and Mendel's 'units' behaved similarly.
  3. This led to the idea that the 'units', now called genes, were located on chromosomes.
  4. It wasn't until the mid-20th century that the structure of DNA was determined, and the mechanism of gene function was worked out.

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