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Who was Gregor Mendel?

Mendel is considered the father of Genetics. He was a monk, biologist and botanist born in Austria in 1822 and dead in 1884. During the years 1853 to 1863 Mendel cultivated pea trees in the gardens of his monastery to be used in his researches. His experiments have consisted in crossing pea trees of distinct characteristics (size, color of the seeds, etc.), cataloging the results and interpreting them. The experiments led him to enunciate the now called Mendel’s laws, results published in 1886 with piffling scientific repercussion. Only in the beginning of the 20th century, in 1902, 18 years after his death, his merits were broadly recognized.

What in Genetics is hybridization?

Hybridization in Genetics is the crossing of individuals from “pure” and different lineages in relation to a given trait, i.e., the crossing of different homozygous for the studied trait.

In the Mendel’s experiments with peas, for example, a plant from a green pea lineage obtained from self fecundation of its ascendants through several generations is crossed (cross fecundation) with another plant from a yellow lineage also obtained by self fecundation of ascendants. (The self fecundation through several generations of ascendants and the exclusive obtention of individuals with the desired characteristics ensure that the individuals of the parental generation are “pure”, i.e., homozygous for such characteristic.)

What is monohybridism?

Monohybridism is the study of only one characteristic in the crossing of two pure individuals (hybridization) for that characteristic.