Gregor Mendel conducted experiments with pea plants to study inheritance of traits from parents to offspring. He found that traits are determined by discrete units (now known as genes) that are passed from parents to offspring. Through his experiments with pea plants and statistical analysis, Mendel discovered that traits are dominant or recessive, and that alleles segregate and assort independently during gamete formation, known today as Mendel's Laws of Inheritance. Mendel's findings formed the basis of classical genetics.