Gregor Mendel is regarded as the father of ______

1. Analyze the question The question asks which field of biology Gregor Mendel founded. The word "father of" means the founder of a branch of science.

2. Explain the concept Gregor Mendel (1822-1884) was an Austrian monk. He experimented with garden pea plants (Pisum sativum) in his monastery garden. He crossed plants with different traits, such as tall and dwarf, or round and wrinkled seeds. From the results he worked out the basic rules of inheritance:

• Law of Segregation: each organism has two factors (alleles) for a trait, and they separate during gamete formation.
• Law of Independent Assortment: factors for different traits are inherited independently of one another.
• Dominance: in a hybrid, the dominant trait masks the recessive one.

The study of how traits pass from parents to offspring is genetics.

3. Check each option

• A. Variation: this describes differences among individuals. It is not a field Mendel founded.
• B. Genetics: correct. Mendel's work on heredity began this science.
• C. Mycology: this is the study of fungi.
• D. Natural selection: this is Charles Darwin's idea, together with Alfred Russel Wallace.

4. Answer Mendel is the Father of Genetics, which is option B.

5. Exam tip Learn these "father of" pairings, because JAMB likes to test them:

• Mendel → Genetics
• Darwin → Natural selection and evolution
• Robert Hooke → Cell (he named it)
• Linnaeus → Taxonomy
• Louis Pasteur → Microbiology