FROM MENDEL,GREGOR TO MOLECULAR PLANT-BRE EDING - A REVIEW

After a retrospect on the publication of Gregor Mendel's paper and on the circumstances of its rediscovery, the discussion of Mendel's ''too close'' results is revisited. Evidence from computer simulations is p resented, which suggests that the segregation ratio reported by Mendel for experiment 2 is highly credible. The retrospect closes with a gla nce on interpreting Mendel's work as being opposed to Darwinism. In a section on molecular genetics, recent results on the wrinkled seed cha racter of pea are discussed. It has been shown that the wrinkled seed phenotype described by Mendel is due to an insertion of a transposable element into a gene coding for starch-branching. Finally, the possibi lity of dissecting quantitative characters into distinct Mendelian fac tors using molecular markers is considered. Mapping of quantitative tr ait loci has solved the old struggle between Mendelian and quantitativ e genetics and is of considerable interest for selection of characters with low heritability in practical plant breeding.