title: Mendel, 150 years on.
abstract: Mendel's paper 'Versuche über Pflanzen-Hybriden' is the best known in a series of studies published in the late 18th and 19th centuries that built our understanding of the mechanism of inheritance. Mendel investigated the segregation of seven gene characters of pea (Pisum sativum), of which four have been identified. Here, we review what is known about the molecular nature of these genes, which encode enzymes (R and Le), a biochemical regulator (I) and a transcription factor (A). The mutations are: a transposon insertion (r), an amino acid insertion (i), a splice variant (a) and a missense mutation (le-1). The nature of the three remaining uncharacterized characters (green versus yellow pods, inflated versus constricted pods, and axial versus terminal flowers) is discussed.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Biological, Environmental & Rural Sciences, Aberystwyth University, Gogerddan Campus, Aberystwyth, Ceredigion SY233EB, UK.
authors.forename: T H Noel
authors.initials: TH
authors.lastname: Ellis
authors.forename: Julie M I
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Hofer
authors.forename: Gail M
authors.initials: GM
authors.lastname: Timmerman-Vaughan
authors.forename: Clarice J
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: Coyne
authors.forename: Roger P
authors.initials: RP
authors.lastname: Hellens
mesh_terms: D035264:Flowers / Q000235:genetics; D005796:Genes; D008040:Genetic Linkage; D005823:Genetics / Q000266:history*; D049671:History, 18th Century; D049672:History, 19th Century; D010858:Pigmentation / Q000235:genetics; D019655:Quantitative Trait, Heritable