Gregor Mendel , the monk who became famous for his pioneering work in plant genetic science , ab initio wanted to create new , better crop . Only at a later stage did he become fascinated by how industrial plant trait are inherited . This is the conclusion of astudy publishedby plant breeding researcherPeter van Dijkin the scientific journal Genetics . Van Dijk works at KeyGene , a research company based in Wageningen , the Netherlands . Van Dijk ’s findings are establish on two of late discovered newspaper publisher article from 1861 . They contradict what many historians have written about Mendel ’s motives and prove that the origin of breeding of innovative , meliorate vegetable crops can be hunt back to as early on as the 19th century .
Mendel is have it away to the general public as the founder of genetic science . With his experimentation with peas , Mendel showed that crossroad of plants can not be compared with mix two fluid , but rather with passing on of ‘ hereditary corpuscle ’ to the offspring .
Due to misunderstandings , Mendel ’s greenback were burn after his death so that , to day of the month , nothing was acknowledge with certainty about Mendel ’s motives . Peter van Dijk : “ There was a opening in the important period between Mendel ’s graduation in 1853 and his famous pea publication in 1865 . I became fascinated by that 12 - year interruption and start out looking for info from that geological period ” .
Surprisingly , Van Dijk was actually help by modern technology . Many old back issues of paper are now being digitalise and made approachable via the internet . Thanks to the usage of so - called OCR software program , digital images can be convert back into school text that can be well searched with the help of lookup engines .
Van Dijk : “ I discovered articles from 1861 in two Czech Brno newsprint about the work of Gregor Mendel . The newspaper publisher described Mendel ’s experiment as extremely instructive and purport at developing better varieties of vegetable and ornamental crop . In other words , in his other years , Mendel was not interested in understanding the heritage of flora traits , but rather in agricultural innovation . ”
partially because of his rational surroundings and the possibilities Mendel had for doing enquiry , he increasingly focused on clarifying the laws of inheritance . That research ultimately led to the notable 1865 issue . Van Dijk : “ It took until 1900 before others , include Hugo de Vries , got this far , only to find out that Gregor Mendel had detect the same principle , but 35 years to begin with . ”
Thescientific clause by Peter van Dijkof KeyGene and his co - source Franjo Weissing of the University of Groningen and the Institute for Advanced Study in Amsterdam and Noel Ellis of the University of Auckland is heart-to-heart access code and can , therefore , be read by anyone on the internet .
For more information : KeyGene NetherlandsAgro Business Park 906708 PW WageningenThe NetherlandsP.O. Box 2166700 AE WageningenThe NetherlandsT +31 ( 0)317 466 866F +31 ( 0)317 424 939www.keygene.com
