What's so special about Mendel's Peas?
With his careful experiments with pea plants, Mendel uncovered the secrets of heredity, or how parents pass characteristics to their offspring. You may not care much about heredity in pea plants, but you probably care about your own heredity. Mendel's discoveries apply to you as well as to peas – and to all other living things that reproduce sexually. The modern science of genetics traces its roots to the observations made by Gregor Johann Mendel, a German – Czech Augustinian monk and scientist who made detailed studies of the nature of inheritance in plants.
Mendel conducted experiments by way of breeding garden peas which helped him to discover the principles of heredity. In the decades following rediscovery and popularization of Mendel's work, numerous experiments sought to elucidate the molecular basis of DNA. Pea plants are a good choice because they are fast growing and easy to raise. They also have several visible characteristics that may vary.
Mendel conducted experiments on true–breeding plants only, with traits that are discrete (either–or type) which enabled him to discover the particulate nature of inheritance. For example, Mendel cross–pollinated two contrasting, true–breeding pea varieties–for example, purple–flowered plants and white–flowered plants which is called hybridization. The parents are referred to as the P generation (parental generation), and their hybrid offspring are the F1 generation (first filial generation). Self pollination of F1 hybrids produce an F2 generation (second filial generation). Mendel could discover the basic patterns of inheritance by analyzing F2 generation plants.