Gregor Mendel: Planting the Seeds of Genetics

Meet Modern Mendels

Mendel’s scientific “heirs” use modern techniques to broaden our understanding of heredity.

While Mendel would probably be amazed by the technology used by his modern counterparts, he would find the questions they are investigating familiar. Scientists today use DNA to explore evolution, conservation and other aspects of the natural world.

For example:

	Mendelian genetics helps fill the branches on the Darwinian “Tree of Life.” The “Early Bird” project, led by Field Museum scientist Dr. Shannon Hackett aims to chart genetic links among major groups of birds.
	DNA can reveal things about an animal’s behavior that binoculars can’t. Field Museum scientist Dr. Kevin Feldheim samples DNA from lemon sharks in the Bahamas for a University of Illinois-Field Museum study of reproductive patterns—information that is crucial to protect these threatened creatures.
	DNA proves that Neanderthals and modern humans are not even distant relatives. In 1997 Svante Pääbo and a team of German and American scientists were the first to extract DNA from Neanderthals. Their research indicates that it has been more than 600,000 years since Neanderthal and Homo sapiens shared a common ancestor.
	Today’s plant geneticists study “gene flow.” Sonal Singhal, a student at Washington University in St. Louis, studies the exchange of genes between domesticated rice and its wild ancestor. “Gene flow” can produce weedy, invasive hybrids that interfere with cultivation and reduce crop yield.

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