Mendel, Gregor Mendel

Gregor Mendel can often be heard of as the father of modern genetics. He is most famous for his work with the pean plants in his garden. Mendel came up with the idea of individual assortment - genes will cause a specific phenotype and these genes would each assort themselves individually from one another. He chose seven characteristics of his pea plants to work with: seed color, seed shape, position of flower, color of flower, stem length, pod shape, and pod color. Each of these characteristics had two options:

• Seed color was either green or yellow
• Seed shape was either round or wrinkled
• Position of flower was either axial or terminal
• Color of flower was either white or purple
• Stem length was either long or short
• Pod shape was either inflated or constricted
• Pod color was either green or yellow

Source: http://beautifulcoolwallpapers.wordpress.com/2011/07/20/gregor-mendel-2/

Through many experiments (termed dihybrid crosses) Mendel concluded that each trait assorted itself independently of the others. A Punnett square can be used to determine Mendelian Inheritance. With all the different patterns of inheritance that multicellular organisms have, it's amazing that Mendel had chosen seven different traits at random that represented independent assortment. I started to think one time what if he chose different traits? What would have happened to our knowledge about genetics had Mendel not done the work that he did?

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregor_Mendel

Do you know if Gregor Mendel was as popular back in his day as he is now? What was the leading theory of genetic inheritance in Mendel's time?