- Mendel conducted experiments breeding pea plants that differed in traits like flower color and seed texture. He discovered that traits are inherited as discrete units (now known as genes) that segregate and assort independently.
- Mendel identified two laws of inheritance: the Law of Segregation states that organisms inherit two copies of each gene, one from each parent, and these segregate so offspring receive only one; the Law of Independent Assortment states that different genes assort independently during gamete formation.
- Mendel's experiments supported the particulate hypothesis of heredity over the blending hypothesis. His work established genetics as a scientific discipline and laid the groundwork for modern understanding of inheritance based on genes and chromosomes